Template-type: ReDif-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: De Marchi, Valentina
Author-Name: Giuliani, Elisa
Author-workplace-name: UNU-MERIT
Author-Name: Rabellotti, Roberta
Title: Local innovation and global value chains in developing countries
Abstract: The GVC approach has stressed that inter-firm linkages within GVCs can play a
	 crucial role in transferring technological knowledge and promoting innovation.
	 However, the exact nature of these GVC inter-firms relationships, and their impact
	 on the learning and innovative processes of firms involved in such GVCs in
	 developing countries is still controversial and rather understudied. In this paper
	 we argue that to investigate whether and how firms involved in GVCs (as well as
	 industrial clusters, regions and countries) innovate, scholars should not focus
	 entirely on GVC characteristics and the role of lead firms, but they also should
	 take into account domestic technological capabilities at the firm, industrial
	 cluster/regional and local innovation system-levels. In this study we undertake a
	 systematic review of the literature on GVCs in developing countries to investigate
	 if and how innovation has been undertaken at the local level. With cluster analysis,
	 we have identified three types of GVCs, defined as (a) GVC-led Innovators,
	 consisting of innovative local firms, which intensively use knowledge sources from
	 within the GVC; (b) Independent Innovators also consisting of innovative firms, but
	 whose learning sources mainly come from outside the GVC; c) Weak Innovators,
	 including a large group of scarcely innovative firms, drawing selectively on some of
	 the knowledge sources available within the GVC but poorly using other forms of
	 learning.
Keywords: Local Innovation, Upgrading, Global Value Chains, Developing Countries
Classification-JEL: O14, O19, O33, O38
Series: UNU-MERIT Working Papers
Creation-Date: 2015
Number: 2015-022
File-URL: https://unu-merit.nl/publications/wppdf/2015/wp2015-022.pdf
File-Format: application/pdf
File-Size: 275 kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unumer:2015022