The Indonesian manufacturing sector faces significant challenges in its attempt to upgrade and remain competitive in both domestic and global markets. Indonesian manufacturing firms are increasingly integrated into global markets via global value chain ties. Yet, little is known about how such involvement impacts upon the ability of Indonesian firms to upgrade. This study aims to understand the nature of upgrading processes within the Indonesian manufacturing sector through a comparison of the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms. To gain a better understanding of upgrading processes, this study integrates the conceptual frameworks of technological capability (TC) and global value chains (GVC) in its analysis. While the GVC literature provides useful insights into the role played by global value chain leaders in assisting, or constraining, through the ways in which they govern value chain ties, the upgrading processes of local producers, the TC framework gives a valuable understanding of the role of capabilities of local manufacturing firms and their ability to undertake upgrading processes. By combining these two frameworks, this study asks the following question: what roles do governance and technological capability play in upgrading processes within the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics value chains?To address the research question, this study gathered both quantitative and qualitative data through surveys and in-depth interviews of Indonesian garment and consumer electronics firms. Firm level case studies are analysed to obtain detailed insights into the process and dynamics of upgrading, value chain governance and capability acquisition undertaken by Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms. Based on the evidence drawn from the survey and eleven case studies within the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics sectors, this study suggests that forms of value chain governance and types of technological capability both play important roles in upgrading processes. Furthermore, upgrading processes and dynamics take place not only in global value chains but also in domestic value chains. Insertion into domestic value chains may, in fact, promote the ability of some Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms to undertake functional upgrading. By demonstrating that the technological capability of the Indonesian garment and consumer electronics manufacturing firms can play an important role in upgrading especially when firms are engaged in domestic value chains but is less pronounced when firms are engaged through hierarchical ties into global value chains, the study provides a more dynamic perspective then standard studies on upgrading and value chain linkages. In terms of policy, this paves the way for a more active role of local manufacturing firms from developing countries to be recognised as contributing to upgrading processes.

The desegregation of global value chains has accelerated the development of a fabric of connectedness between firms, locations, and inventors. The modern global business world is now characterized by these connections, which serve as conduits of high value knowledge between specialist repositories, or centers of excellence. The properties of knowledge repositories are a function of the co-evolution of their constituent firms and the locations themselves. Thus, it is of great interest to scholars of international business, economic geography, and innovation studies to understand the roles and characteristics of the firms and locations that participate in global value chains. This dissertation explores the movement of knowledge from seemingly disparate locations and firms as it coalesces into ideas, and then follows the path of transformation into a commercialized product or service. In the first chapter, I laid the theoretical groundwork for the dissertation and review how the different studies contribute to the our understanding of how firm and location characteristics interact with global innovation connectedness, and vice versa. Three chapters that study innovation dynamics at within global value chains then follow. In the second chapter, I explore the characteristics of orchestrating firms, high order specialists that coordinate the movement of knowledge and activities in global value chains. With evidence from the pharmaceutical industry I find that not all orchestrating firms are created equal: a core insider group, known as “majors”, possess a unique legitimacy that enables the absorption of risk and grants access to greater resources that are required to control the value capture from market-defining innovation. In the third chapter, I discuss the interdependencies of orchestrating firms and industrial change by examining the Detroit auto cluster. I argue that the very forces that led to significant manufacturing loss in the Detroit area may also be behind the resilience of its knowledge production, a finding underwritten by significant innovation connectedness to other auto clusters. In the fourth and final chapter, I find that knowledge connectivity is a crucial driver of exploration into new technological areas, and that firms may be connected both internationally and domestically. Further, I find that the operational footprint of the firm is a vital amplifier of its connectivity efforts. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Aim of this diploma thesis is to describe functioning of global coffee value chains and this knowledge then apply to the coffee industry in Vietnam which serves as a case study. The introductory chapter focuses firstly on institutional background of value chains, processes and management processes used in the agricultural industry. The thesis also contains analysis of global coffee value chain, including the identification of entities engaged in the chain and their contribution to the creation of added value. Next chapter describes the development of the world coffee market and production of the world's major producers and exporters of coffee. The thesis also deals with the topic of economic and social sustainability and the impact of global value chains on the environment. Final part of the thesis concentrates on the position of the coffee industry in Vietnam, its structure and development over the past 40 years. Attention is paid also to a problematic position of small growers or to the opportunities of the development of the local coffee industry.

Yes / Underpinned by a contemporary view of automotive systems as cyber-physical systems, characterised by progressively open architectures increasingly defined by their interaction with the users and the smart environment, this paper provides a critical and up-to-date review of automotive Integrated Vehicle Health Management (IVHM) systems. The paper discusses the challenges with prognostics and intelligent health management of automotive systems, and proposes a high-level framework, referred to as the Automotive Healthcare Analytic Factory, to systematically collect and process heterogeneous data from across the product lifecycle, towards actionable insight for personalised healthcare of systems. / Jaguar Land Rover funded research “Intelligent Personalised Powertrain Healthcare” 2016-2019

This thesis deals with the globalization of production, a salient feature of the modern economy. The development of international outsourcing as a widespread business practice and the simultaneous decrease in trade and transport costs have contributed to the growth of a phenomenon known as global value chains. The main aim of the thesis is to understand how global value chains alter the location of economic activity. The thesis also studies the extent of firms' participation in global value chains and its consequences for firm performance.   The thesis consists of four papers studying the behavior of firms in global value chains. Paper 1 analyzes how production fragmentation influences the importing and exporting behavior of Swedish firms in the manufacturing sector. Paper 2 focuses on manufacturing firms in the ICT sector and analyzes the effect of global sourcing on firm performance. In Paper 3, the thesis examines deeper implications of global production by investigating whether exposure to trade raises firms' sensitivity to external shocks. The final paper in the thesis studies the location patterns of multinational firms and analyzes the effect of institutional distance on the number of multinational entries in developing countries.   A number of patterns emerge from these studies. The first is that Swedish manufacturing firms increasingly participate in global value chains by sourcing production inputs from overseas to create products for local and foreign customers. As a result, global value chains help to alter the specialization patterns of manufacturing firms. The second finding is that firms reap benefits from global sourcing in the form of greater efficiency. However, global sourcing may also raise the responsiveness of firms to negative external shocks. The final key result points to a developing trend in the location of activity in which emerging market multinational firms are becoming significant sources of foreign direct investment flows and their investment patterns challenge existing theories of multinational location choice.

We are witnessing a time of unprecedented human impact on the natural environment. Coral reefs, one of the most biologically diverse and productive ecosystems, are at the forefront of enduring these human impacts. Despite widespread recognition of coral reef degradation, counter measures have not reached a scale to offset the threat. The magnitude of this and other environmental issues call for a deeper understanding of the role the private sector can play in sustainable development. In response to environmental pressures and the shortcomings of global-scale governance, private sustainability governance initiatives have developed. In the last decade, these initiatives have flourished, resulting in a diversity of formats including third-party certification, consumer product transparency systems, and industry roundtables. In many industries, these programs compete to define the transformation and evolution of sustainability governance in an industry. This dissertation draws on a case study of the marine cultured-pearl industry to highlight the early adoption dynamics of private sustainability governance initiatives. The marine cultured-pearl industry provides an illuminating case study for the adoption of private governance, based on the potential strength of the positive environmental impact and farm presence in ecologically vulnerable coral reef areas. Yet despite these strengths, no formal sustainability initiatives have developed. This research project explores the early adoption of private governance initiatives through a mixed-methodological, case-study approach. The first study, a quantitative survey of US jewelry consumers, examines the impacts of environmental messages on perceptions of luxury value. The second study assesses the effect of networked legitimacy on producer perceptions in private governance initiatives. The final study investigates the impact of value chain structure on competing private governance initiatives. The research results provide evidence of a strong business case for the development of industry-wide sustainability initiatives and highlights distinctions between the rival private governance initiatives. The US jewelry consumer research shows that consumer messages featuring sustainability standards to protect coral reefs outperform third-party certification on luxury attributes. The marine cultured-pearl producer research highlights the legitimacy advantages of consumer product transparency when compared to third-party certifications. The value chain research indicates that, when compared to third-party certifications, consumer product transparency systems have characteristics that provide an advantage in addressing producer upgrading opportunities. Results from each of the three studies highlight the potential advantages of consumer product transparency systems over third-party certification initiatives in this and other settings. These results helped inform participatory action research to assess alternative pathways for private sustainability governance.

<p>How do food and agribusiness firms capture more profit in their value chain? How do innovative managers identify attractive adjacency and disintermediation opportunities? What options are available to a manager facing these questions and what economic incentives might motivate their strategic behavior? This study sought to address these timely questions, more effectively understand the strategic decisions facing food and agribusiness managers relative to value chain profit pools, and uncover some of the hidden dynamics between chain participants. Specifically, this study defines and quantifies the U.S. animal protein industry value chain across three species – hogs, cattle, and broiler chickens. The study found evidence to suggest that governance structure has strong ties to value generation and that intra-value chain dynamics impact price transmission between chain nodes. Further, this study creates a foundation for other researchers to continue examining agri-food value chain dynamics and its link to firm-level profitability, value capture, and long-term sustainability.</p>

Given growing concerns regarding the chocolate sector's long-term future, ever more private-sector, public-sector and civil-society stakeholders have become involved in initiatives aiming to make cocoa production more 'sustainable'. However, despite the omnipresent term, stakeholders' understandings of associated environmental, commercial and socio-economic priorities diverge: while transforming cocoa into a more attractive livelihood for farmers is paramount for some, others prioritise links to global environmental challenges. A third dimension encompasses commercial concerns related to securing supply, an increasing qualm given projected cocoa shortages and ever-rising concentration in the marketplace. This research argues there are considerable tensions between different stakeholders' commercial, socio-economic and environmental priorities in cocoa sustainability initiatives especially in light of the sector's intensifying challenges. Further tensions emerge between underlying drivers and representations, as public-facing communication continues to emphasise altruism rather than commercial necessity, locating engagements in 'nice-to-have' rather than 'business imperative' territory. Based on documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation, this thesis aims to capture how cocoa-sector changes have driven shifts in stakeholder priorities and representations, incorporating voices from across the initiatives ranging from cocoa producers to chocolate consumers. Utilising a modified global production networks lens to represent the full spectrum of stakeholders involved, the research maps three cocoa sustainability initiatives incorporating conservation or carbon measures in terms of power and embeddedness, stakeholder drivers and representations. While identifying tensions, it also argues that acknowledging divergent understandings of the polysemic 'sustainability' concept constitutes an opportunity for a much-needed redressing of power and embeddedness asymmetries to address systemic issues threatening the sector's future. However, the thesis also observes that despite protestations of partnership, few actors are willing to contemplate the systemic changes in favour of more equitable treatment and power distribution which would be required to safeguard the sector's long-term viability. This thesis's contributions include its unprecedented critical exploration of the diverging socio-economic, commercial and environmental drivers which diverse stakeholders associate with cocoa sustainability, the meanings they create towards the public, and the link to underlying power and embeddedness structures. These analytical foci have proved instrumental in unpacking emerging tensions, which are likely to grow more marked as cocoa shortages become more acute and understandings of sustainability continue to diverge.

Stringent Northern private food standards have created onerous requirements for horticulture farmers in Kenya who wish to supply global value chains (GVC) and production networks (GPNs) governed by global lead firms. Simultaneously, Southern (regional) supermarkets have emerged over the last few decades leading to the formation of regional production networks (RPNs), which provide a new market opportunity and require meeting different regional private and public standards. Both Northern and regional standards are increasingly including complex environmental requirements that risk farmer exclusion from participation in both global and regional markets. This is exacerbated by bio-physical aspects of climate variability and extremes that impinge on crop quality and yield. A key problem therefore arises from the ability of farmers across not only GPNs but also RPNs and local production networks (LPNs) to cope with different environmental upgrading and downgrading pressures, emerging from standards and bio-physical aspects. The overarching research question this thesis seeks to address is: What are the dynamics of environmental upgrading, embeddedness and governance for farmers in global, regional and local production networks? This thesis seeks to make three contributions to the GPN and GVC literatures. The first is integrating the natural environment through a concept I call re-environmentalization. I suggest farmers dis-embed from previous relationships and interactions with their environment/land and re-embed into new socio-ecological relationships in GPNs, RPNs or LPNs. The second contribution enriches production network and value chain analysis by adding a dimension of €changing epistemologies€™ wherein I explicate understandings of governance through the lens of a farmer. I view governance as something that 'is experienced'€™ rather than focus on the lead firms'€™ perspective of '€˜governing'€™. I question the linearity of upgrading, studying what it means to a farmer, instead of assuming that all upgrades are beneficial. The third contribution is to compare how re-environmentalization and governance, effect a farmers' ability to environmentally upgrade heterogeneously across global, regional and local production networks, thereby going beyond the North-South analysis prevalent in GPN literature. The thesis is based on field research in Kenya involving 102 key informant interviews, 6 focus group discussions and a survey of 579 farmers across four counties (Murang'a, Machakos, Nyandarua, Meru) producing snow peas, garden peas, avocados and mangoes. The analysis uses a mixed method approach, drawing on econometric models along with qualitative data to provide triangulated and robust comparisons across production networks. The empirical findings of the research indicate that the trajectories of environmental upgrading/ downgrading are complex and dynamic across farmers in GPNs, RPNs and LPNs. This is because the process through which farmers re-environmentalize into GPNs is contested, as relationships with Northern firms'€™ breed dis-trust and inhibit the use of tacit knowledge. This prevents farmers from performing environmental upgrading in a sustainable way. Furthermore, I debunk the implicit assumption that economically upgrading, by adhering to Northern and regional standards is sustainable, and instead show that these standards can trigger environmental downgrading. RPN farmers, because of their entrepreneurial capacity and smoother process of re-environmentalizing into regional networks, compared to farmers in GPNs, are able to internalize knowledge and environmentally upgrade more sustainably. Finally, LPN farmers perform the least environmental upgrades, due to minimal support from other network actors. Overall, I establish that it is critical to incorporate environmental dimensions in production network and value chain analysis.

<p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose of this thesis is to define and analyse how Swedish record companies work with digital musical content distributors. A more narrow aim is to show how the record companies and with the digital musical content distributors iTunes Music Store and Spotify create incentives for consumer’s to use legal digital music channels through the Internet. To further circle the core of the problem following questions have been asked: How does the record companies provide iTunes Music Store and Spotify with digital content and what is done by the record companies to retain control over the material? How do the record companies view digital musical sales and what incentives are given to consumers to buy music digitally? Finally, What position of power do iTunes Music Store and Spotify have on the digital content arena?</p><p>Material/Method: The data collected for this thesis is retrieved through personal interviews with representatives from three of the four major record companies Universal Music, Warner Music and EMI and their Swedish branches.</p><p>Main results: The consumer’s access to digital content through iTunes Music Store and Spotify is of the utmost importance and is a prerequisite. Even if the record companies choose to not demand DRM protection on their products it does not stop Apple from keeping their Fairplay protection. In this way Apple is the company controlling the files, even if the Record Companies have made their decision based on research, which has shown that sales go down if the music files are DRM protected. The record companies have chosen not to get involved with the sales of digital content. This results in power being shifted to E-tailers such as iTunes Music Store and Spotify. The incentives the consumers are given to buy music digitally are found in the surplus value, which is supported by iTunes Music Store and Spotify. These surplus values are such services as recommendations of music or artists. Different packaging solutions, such as subscriptions through an Internet provider, do not raise the value of the music. The value is added to the Internet provider’s products and not the music, but they do guarantee a steady income for the record companies.</p>