Q Step Summer Research Projects 2017
Project leader /
Supervisor
Email
Project Reference
Project Title
Jeremy Clegg & Hinrich Voss
[email protected] & [email protected]
LUBS-17-JC
Understanding the impact of Global Value Chain (GVC)
participation on economic activity between economies
Location of Placement
University of Leeds/Leeds University Business
School/International Business/Cromer Terrace
Brief overview of project (including whether it involves quantitative or qualitative research)
This internship position will contribute to a major project, currently underway, on
international value chains and the power of multinational corporations within these. This
is a topic that brings together international business theory, the theory of economic
development, and management-related research on bargaining within value chains – a
vibrant subject area.
The main part of this internship will consist of data gathering under the guidance of the
project supervisors, aided by a postgraduate doctoral researcher – Miguel Dindial – who
is managing a significant piece of research within this subject area.
Using a theoretical framework developed by the supervisors and Miguel, the intern will
interrogate and organise data drawn from the Trade in Value Added (TiVA) project – a
project of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the
World Trade Organisation (WTO). This TiVA project is one of the first large-scale projects
in the world to bring together national input output data to produce an estimate of global
value chains. This will be combined with the theoretical framework produced within
Leeds, to generate a sophisticated description of global value chains as they are
developing today, in the context of international business. The research activity of the
intern will therefore be quantitative, but strongly theoretically-driven.
The theoretical framework which will be applied is highly original – having been produced
at Leeds, drawing on the primary research of the postgraduate researcher. The intern will
therefore have the opportunity to work closely not only with the supervisors but also with
a researcher currently investigating a subject of great topicality and importance. The
findings of this project, are expected to be innovative in revealing not only changes in the
returns to capital and labour, but also the reasons for these changes. In other words
there will be a dimension that offers a critique of the conventional wisdom that global
value chains (GVCs) are beneficial to world income and welfare. This will take the
analysis beyond a mere description of the data,
Links to external organisation/s (if relevant)
Both supervisors have strong links with UNCTAD, and the work conducted under this
Q Step Summer Research Projects 2017
internship will have direct relevance to the staff working in the Division for Industry and
Employment (DIAE), which is the division of UNCTAD that produces the annual World
Investment Report. One of the supervisors of this research internship has acted as an
expert adviser to UNCTAD on the topic of international business and global value chains,
and was party to the advisory group that assisted UNCTAD in producing the World
Investment Report dedicated to analysing GVCs, which was published in 2013. It is likely
that the outcome of this internship will be presented to UNCTAD, therefore giving a
unique link to real-world practice and international advice.
Nature of tasks to be pursued by the placement holder (and quantitative/qualitative research
skills to be developed)
The empirical part of the internship will collect public domain information from the Trade
in Value Added (TiVA) project and data on multinational firms with globally dispersed
activities. While its end market operations lie predominantly in mainly the developed
economies, globally fragmented value chains means that these multinational firms
become intertwined in the operations of domestic firms in host countries. The effects of
these relationships have profound implications on economic prosperity within these
nations.
From the academic point of view, the intern’s research will investigate: (1) the nature and
extent of the global fragmentation (and length) of key value chains, with focus on
multinational enterprises that are deeply involved in its organisation of such value chains
(2) the evolution of these value chains over time – in terms of domestic embeddedness,
chain length and activity scope. These aspects will be inferred from patterns in the
secondary data, and will be informed by our theoretical framework and existing empirical
work.
To achieve the internship’s objectives, research in the public domain (e.g., business and
financial media), including database research, and directed reading, will be required. It is
planned that this research will be written up for dissemination (see above) and may
contribute to work to be presented at UNCTAD.
The research skills to be developed will be how to secure and conduct effective research
upon secondary data, and how to relate international business principles to the realworld existence and operation of GVCs, and to foreign investment. Critical ability will also
be developed, as the topic is one on which conflicting views are expressed in different
segments of society.
Nature of contact with / support for placement holder from staff member
The activity will be run by the supervisors and will be supplemented by regular (at least
weekly) one-to-one (or one-to-two) face-to-face instruction with the supervisors in
aspects of the empirical research and in the theory of International Business. Miguel will
act as a main point of contact throughout the duration of the internship. His intimate
knowledge of both the theoretical framework and the TiVA dataset will ensure that the
intern is well guided throughout the entire data collection process.
Q Step Summer Research Projects 2017
References (selected):
Brewer, B. D. (2015). 'Global Commodity Chains & World Income Inequalities: The
Missing Link of Inequality and the Upgrading Paradox', Journal of World-Systems
Research, 17, pp. 308-327.
Buckley, P. J. (2009). 'The impact of the global factory on economic development',
Journal of World Business, 44, pp. 131-143.
Gereffi, G. and J. Lee (2012). 'Why the World Suddenly Cares About Global Supply
Chains', Journal of Supply Chain Management, 48, pp. 24-32.
UNCTAD (2013). “World investment report 2013: global value chains: investment and
trade for development”, United Nations, New York, World Investment Report.