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The burgeoning literature on global value chains (GVCs) has recast our understanding of how industrial clusters are shaped by their ties to the international economy, but within this context, the role played by corporate social responsibility (CSR) continues to evolve. New research in the past decade allows us to better understand how CSR is linked to industrial clusters and GVCs. With geographic production and trade patterns in many industries becoming concentrated in the global South, lead firms in GVCs have been under growing pressure to link economic and social upgrading in more integrated forms of CSR. This is leading to a confluence of \"private governance\" (corporate codes of conduct and monitoring), \"social governance\" (civil society pressure on business from labor organizations and non-governmental organizations), and \"public governance\" (government policies to support gains by labor groups and environmental activists). This new form of \"synergistic governance\" is illustrated with evidence from recent studies of GVCs and industrial clusters, as well as advances in theorizing about new patterns of governance in GVCs and clusters.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intended and unintended consequences of compliance and auditing pressures in the Bangladeshi garment industry. To explore this issue the authors draw on three medium-sized suppliers. The institutional changes that followed the Rana Plaza accident in April 2013 make Bangladesh in general and the garment industry in particular an interesting and suitable research setting for standards compliance. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopts a multiple case study approach. Face-to-face interviews have been conducted with the owners of three Bangladeshi garment manufacturing firms and several workers. Additionally, organisational documents and local newspaper articles had been collected wherever possible. Findings – The results indicate that the pressure for compliance has led the case companies to prioritise the implementation of measurable standards over the socially grounded needs and priorities of workers. As a consequence certain initiatives instead of adding new social value in fact destroyed previously existing social value. Furthermore, the pressure for compliance created the necessity to find ways to cover the sizable cost of compliance. This prompted firms to pursue process upgrading through technological advancements and increased work pressures on the labour force. These initiatives led to an increased power imbalance and the exclusion of unskilled workers from the job market. Research limitations/implications – The paper contributes to the understanding of the human rights implications of compliance and auditing pressures and initiatives. Furthermore, in order to further enrich existing knowledge in the critical accounting literature, the study draws on insights from the global value chains (GVC) and international business (IB) literatures. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the understanding of the human rights implications of compliance and auditing pressures and initiatives. Furthermore, in order to further enrich existing knowledge in the critical accounting literature, the study draws on insights from the GVC and IB literatures.

Social upgrading does not inherently follow economic upgrading; rather, they present a complex interplay. This paper, focusing on China, utilizes the coupling coordination degree and a panel regression model to shed light on the intricate interaction between social upgrading and economic upgrading. It is found that the coupling coordination degree of social and economic upgrading in China has improved from 0.33 to 0.49 since the mid-1990s, undergoing a shift from a stage of slight imbalance to low-level coordination. However, significant regional disparities are present in terms of economic upgrading, social upgrading, and their coupling coordination degree. Developed areas exhibit a higher degree of coupling coordination compared to less developed regions, indicating a connection between the coupling coordination degree and the level of economic growth. Economic globalization, public governance, and the legal environment positively impact the coupling coordination between social and economic upgrading, while economic privatization and corporate violations of law exert negative effects. The paper concludes with policy discussions for enhancing the coupling coordination between social and economic upgrading.

The focus on the concept of upgrading in the study of global production networks has expanded from economic upgrading to encompass social and environmental upgrading. However, rare research pays attention to the complex interplay among these three aspects. This paper tries to integrate the economic, social, and environmental upgrading into an analytical framework through the lens of coupling coordination. Using the Granger causality test and panel regression model, it provides empirical evidence and an explanation of the triad’s interaction based on the Chinese case study. It is found that, over the past twenty-five years from 1996 to 2020, China has seen a significant improvement in the coupling coordination of economic, social, and environmental upgrading with the coordination degree rising from 0.35 to 0.51, though it remains at a low level of coordination. Regional disparities in economic upgrading are more pronounced than those in social and environmental upgrading, and the inter-group disparities between economic and environmental upgrading have widened following the economic crisis. Panel regression analysis shows that economic globalization, public governance, legal environment, and environmental regulation positively influence the coupling coordination of the three types of upgrading, while economic privatization and corporate violations of law tend to have a negative impact.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the global value chain (GVC) approach to understand the relationship between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the changing patterns of global trade, investment and production, and its impact on economic and social upgrading. It aims to illuminate how GVCs can advance our understanding about MNEs and rising power (RP) firms and their impact on economic and social upgrading in fragmented and dispersed global production systems. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the GVC literature focusing on two conceptual elements of the GVC approach, governance and upgrading, and highlights three key recent developments in GVCs: concentration, regionalization and synergistic governance. Findings – The paper underscores the complicated role of GVCs in shaping economic and social upgrading for emerging economies, RP firms and developing country firms in general. Rising geographic and organizational concentration in GVCs leads to the uneven distribution of upgrading opportunities in favor of RP firms, and yet economic upgrading may be elusive even for the most established suppliers because of power asymmetry with global buyers. Shifting end markets and the regionalization of value chains can benefit RP firms by presenting alternative markets for upgrading. Yet, without further upgrading, such benefits may be achieved at the expense of social downgrading. Finally, the ineffectiveness of private standards to achieve social upgrading has led to calls for synergistic governance through the cooperation of private, public and social actors, both global and local. Originality/value – The paper illuminates how the GVC approach and its key concepts can contribute to the critical international business and RP firms literature by examining the latest dynamics in GVCs and their impacts on economic and social development in developing countries.

This paper addresses Green Growth and Agriculture in Brazil, analysing the National Plan for Low Carbon Emission in Agriculture (ABC Plan). The main focus is to detail the structure and actions proposed and implemented by the ABC Plan, and also to identify its economic, environmental and social effects. Using a qualitative research approach, desk research was conducted through reports, newspaper articles, and official documents from the Brazilian government and the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA). The outcomes indicated that the ABC Plan did not address the main components of the literature on green growth policies, such as proper training of human resources in sustainable agricultural techniques, and access to financial support for promoting the implementation of sustainable agriculture systems. The lack of participation of local institutions in the creation and implementation of the ABC Plan is also pointed out.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper includes two interconnected objectives. The first is to provide a reconceptualisation of social value creation as social constraint alleviation. The second is to respond to the call put forward by Giuliani and Macchi (2014) to produce synergies between bodies of literature exploring the development impact of businesses. The paper focuses on ideas from the global value chain/global production networks (GVC/GPN), business and human rights, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international business (IB) and (social) entrepreneurship literatures. Design/methodology/approach – The paper offers a reconceptualisation of social value creation by building on the synergies, complementarities and limitations of existing concepts identified through the literature review. Findings – The reconceptualisation of social value creation put forward in this paper contributes to the literature in the following way. It offers a useful and clear definition of the term “social” (Devinney, 2009), and it attends to the limitations of the constraint concept as put forward by Ted London and his collaborators (London, 2011). Furthermore, it sketches out the basic ideas of a two-system approach to allow for the differentiation between symptom treatment and root cause alleviation. Finally, it offers a refinement of Wettstein’s (2012) proposed capability-based remedial action concept. The paper furthermore proposes that there are three distinct ways in which businesses generally respond to social constraints. Originality/value – The paper illustrates how the redefined concept of social value creation can connect different bodies of literature and help make sense of existing empirical results, without engaging in definitional debates.

This paper identifies several governance factors that enable economic upgrading and the link between economic and social upgrading /downgrading of smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers in Ghana's cocoa value chain (GCVC). The findings are based on qualitative interviews and focus group discussions with various actors in GCVC. Our findings suggest two types of economic upgrading: process and product upgrading, achieved by smallholder producers and Abusa Sharecroppers in GCVC. While process upgrading is enabled by governance factors such as price stabilization and controlling opportunistic behavior, transparency in the sale of certified beans and premium management is key for product upgrading. Regarding the link between economic and social upgrading, we reveal that process upgrading leads to the same outcome of social upgrading and downgrading for smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers due to governance factors such as production and purchasing policies and lack of resources and capabilities. However, product upgrading links to social upgrading and downgrading for smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers respectively owing to governance factors such as controlling resources and bargaining power. We provide insights into key actors and their interests, drivers of change and effects of incentives that play crucial roles in shaping governance factors that influence economic and social upgrading of smallholders and Abusa sharecroppers in GCVC. In our conclusion, we identify how regulations, institutional support and conflicts of interest are key for enabling upgrading of developing countries’ agricultural value chains.

All bioeconomy strategies contain certain claims and promises, though these differ from one world region to another. Proceeding from an analysis of bioeconomy debates and the appropriation of the concept by key actors in Argentina and Malaysia, we argue that both countries regard the bioeconomy as a development strategy primarily geared towards the industrial upgrading of agricultural value chains. Its aim is to increase value added in the soy (Argentina) and palm oil (Malaysia) commodity chains by adding further domestic processing steps and developing new branches of industry. This is to lead to social and environmental upgrading and enable the countries to outgrow their subordinate role as biomass exporters. Referring to the world-systems approach and the global value chain literature, we argue that such upgrading strategies must be understood in the context of the hierarchical global division of labour and the position of individual countries in global markets. We show that the promises of industrial, social and environmental upgrading associated with hegemonic bioeconomy visions in Argentina and Malaysia have failed to materialise. Very few new jobs were created, while soybean and palm oil production continue to rely on environmentally harmful techniques. The socioecological long-term costs of the current production model remain unaddressed and unresolved, primarily because property relations and the underlying profit-oriented production model based on mechanisation, monocropping and a greater use of pesticides are never questioned. Should Argentina and Malaysia continue on their current paths, their chances of attaining the bioeconomy’s purported socioeconomic and environmental goals are very slim.

Emerging market governments are incented to attract global value chain (GVC) activities to fuel economic growth. At the same time, in light of real and perceived workplace-related injustices within emerging markets, GVC lead firms are under pressure to improve social standard compliance within their upstream supply chain. Among the most common approaches to achieve these outcomes is to impose standards of conduct that are vetted by on-site audits. Research has shown, however, that improvement in GVC performance using this approach has been slow and sometimes leads to negative consequences, leading us to our research question: under what conditions do interventions by GVC lead firms yield significant improvements in social standards among upstream supplier workplaces? We hypothesize that a country’s institutions not only have direct effects on social upgrading but also indirectly affect the ability of third parties to bring about social compliance. Our findings, based on two longitudinal datasets, suggest that GVC lead firms must account for the unique country-level institutional pressures that either propel or hamper improvement over time in private social standard compliance among upstream suppliers. In addition, governments must develop new policy responses to target the prevailing institutional pressures that dampen social upgrading if they are to attract and retain GVC investment.