Global production networks

Global Production Networks (GPN) is a concept in developmental literature which refers to "the nexus of interconnected functions, operations and transactions through which a specific product or service is produced, distributed and consumed."

A global production network is one whose interconnected nodes and links extend spatially across national boundaries and, in so doing, integrates parts of disparate national and subnational territories" GPN frameworks combines the insights from the global value chain analysis, actor–network theory and literature on Varieties of Capitalism. GPN provides a relational framework that aims to encompass all the relevant actors in the production systems. GPN framework provides analytical platform that relates sub-national regional development with clustering dynamics.

In 1990s the concept of value chain gained its credit among economists and business scholars. (Its prominent developer Michael Porter). The concept combined sequenced and interconnected activities in the process of value creation. Value chain concept focused on business activities, but not on the corporate power and institutional context. In 1994 Garry Gereffi, together with Miguel Korzeniewicz introduced the concept of Global Commodity Chains (GCC):

sets of interorganizational networks clustered around one commodity or product, linking households, enterprises, and states to one another within the world-economy. These networks are situationally speciŽc, socially constructed, and locally integrated, underscoring the social embeddedness of economic organization

The concept was developed further by a number of authors that emphasized importance of chain governance in different commodities (e.g. automobiles, textile, electronics etc.)

At the beginning of 2000s a group of authors Jeffrey Henderson, Peter Dicken, Martin Hess, Neil Coe and Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, introduced GPN framework, that builds on the development of previous approaches to international production processes. At the same time it expands beyond the linearity of GCC approach to incorporate all kinds of network configuration. Adopting clear network perspective allows to embrace the complexity of multidimensional layers of production moving beyond the "linear progression of the product or service"

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