外文资料翻译--全球工业的商品产业链分析

Institute

of

Develompment

Studies

,

1999,

12(2):

1-8.

A Commodity Chains of Framework for Analyzing Global Industries

Gary Gereffi

Duke University

Abstrast

:

In

this

paper,

we

fouce

on

the

and

global

commodity

chains,

which

is

under

the

development

of

industrial

and

commercial

capital.

And

then

analyze

their

features

and

the

relationship

with

development strategies.

Keywords:

Globalization; Commodity Chains; development strategies

Background

In

global

capitalism,

economic activity is

not

only

international

in

scope, it is

also

global in organization.

activities across national boundaries.

As such, it is not a new phenomenon.

Indeed, it

has been a prominent feature of the world economy since at least the seventeenth century

when

colonial

empires

began

to

carve

up

the

globe

in

search

of

raw

materials

and

new

markets

for

their

manufactured

exports.

is

much

more

recent

than

internationalization

because

it

implies

functional

integration

between

internationally

dispersed activities (Dicken, 1998: 5).

Types of globalization

Industrial

and

commercial

capital

have

promoted

globalization

by

establishing

two

distinct types of international economic networks, which can be called

and

global

commodity

chains,

respectively

(Gereffi,

1994;

1999).

A

commodity chain refers to the whole range of activities involved in the design, production,

and marketing of a product (see Gereffi and Korzeniewicz, 1994 for an overview of this

framework).

Producer-driven

commodity

chains

are

those

in

which

large,

usually

transnational,

manufacturers

play

the

central

roles

in

coordinating

production

networks

(including

their

backward

and

forward

linkages).

This

is

characteristic

of

capital-

and

technology-intensive industries such as automobiles, aircraft, computers, semiconductors,

and

heavy

machinery.

The

automobile

industry

offers

a

classic

illustration

of

a

producer-driven

chain,

with

multilayered

production

systems

that

involve

thousands

of

firms

(including

parents,

subsidiaries,

and

subcontractors).

In

the

1980s,

the

average

- 1 -

Japanese

automaker's

production

system,

for

example,

contained

170

first-tier,

4,700

second-tier,

and

31,600

third- tier

subcontractors

(Hill

1989:

466).

Florida

and

Kenney

(1991) found that Japanese automobile manufacturers actually reconstituted many aspects

of their home-country supplier networks in North America.

Doner (1991) extended this

framework

to

highlight

the

complex

forces

that

drive

Japanese

automakers

to

create

regional production schemes for the supply of auto

parts in

a half-dozen nations in

East

and

Southeast

Asia.

Henderson

(1989)

and

Borrus

(1997)

also

support

the

notion

that

producer-driven commodity chains have established an East Asian division of labor in their

studies of the internationalization of the U.S. and Japanese semiconductor industries.

Buyer-driven

commodity

chains

refer

to

those

industries

in

which

large

retailers,

marketers,

and

branded

manufacturers

play

the

pivotal

roles

in

setting

up

decentralized

production networks in a variety of exporting countries, typically located in the third world.

This

pattern

of

trade-led

industrialization

has

become

common

in

labor-intensive,

consumer

goods

industries

such

as

garments,

footwear,

toys,

housewares,

consumer

electronics,

and

a

variety

of

handicrafts.

Production

is

generally

carried

out

by

tiered

networks

of

third

world

contractors

that

make

finished

goods

for

foreign

buyers.

The

specifications are supplied by the large retailers or marketers that order the goods.

Features

One of the main characteristics of the firms that fit the buyer- driven model, including

retailers like Wal-Mart, Sears Roebuck, and J.C. Penney, athletic footwear companies like

Nike

and

Reebok,

and

fashion-oriented

apparel

companies

like

Liz

Claiborne

and

The

Limited,

is

that

these

companies

design

and/or

market

—

but

do

not

make

—

the

branded

products

they

order.

They

are

part

of

a

new

breed

of

without

factories

separate

the

physical

production

of

goods

from

the

design

and

marketing

stages

of

the

production

process.

Profits

in

buyer-driven

chains

derive

not

from

scale,

volume, and technological advances as in producer-driven chains, but rather from unique

combinations of high-value research, design, sales, marketing, and financial services that

allow the retailers, designers, and marketers to act as strategic brokers in linking overseas

factories and traders with evolving product niches in their main consumer markets (Gereffi,

1994).

Profitability is greatest in the relatively concentrated segments of global commodity

chains characterized by high barriers to the entry of new firms.

In producer-driven chains,

manufacturers making advanced products like aircraft, automobiles, and computers are the

key economic agents not only in terms of their earnings, but also in their ability to exert

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control over backward linkages with raw material and component suppliers, and forward

linkages into distribution and retailing.

The lead firms in producer-driven chains usually

belong

to

global

oligopolies.

Buyer-driven

commodity

chains,

by

contrast,

are

characterized

by

highly

competitive

and

globally

decentralized

factory

systems.

The

Main Characteristics of Producer-Driven and Buyer-Driven

companies that develop and sell brand- named products exert substantial control over how,

when, and where manufacturing will take place, and how much profit accrues at each stage

of

the

chain.

Thus,

whereas

producer-driven

commodity

chains

are

controlled

by

large

manufacturers at

the point

of production, the main

leverage in

buyer- driven industries is

exercised by retailers and marketers at the distribution and retail end of the chain.

The

main

features

of

producer-driven

and

buyer-driven

commodity

chains

are

highlighted

in

Table

1.

Producer-driven

and

buyer-driven

chains

are

rooted

in

distinct

industrial

sectors,

they

are

led

by

different

types

of

transnational

capital

(industrial

and

commercial, respectively), and they vary in their core competencies (at the firm level) and

their entry barriers (at the sectoral level).

The finished goods in producer-driven chains

tend to be supplied by core country transnationals, while the goods in buyer- driven chains

are

generally

made

by

locally

owned

firms

in

developing

countries.

Whereas

transnational

corporations

establish

investment-based

vertical

networks,

the

retailers,

designers, and trading companies in buyer-driven chains set up and coordinate trade- based

horizontal networks.

Drivers of Global

commodity

Core Competencies

Barriiers to Entry

Economics Sectors

Typical Industries

Ownship of Manufacturing

Firms

Main Network Links

Predominant Network

Stucture

Global Commodity Chains

Producter-Driven Commodity

Buyer-Driven Commodity Chain

Chain

Industrial Capital

Research & Development;

Production

Economies of Scale

Consumer

Durables ;Intermediate

Goods Capital Goods

Automobiles; Computers;

Aircraft

Transnational Firms

Investment-based

Vertical

Commercial Capital

Design; Marketing

Economies of Scope

Consumer Nondurables

Apparel; Footwear; Toys

Local Firms, predominantly in

developing countries

Trade-based

Horizontal

- 3 -

Commodity chains and development strategies

There

is

an

affinity

between

commodity

chains

and

development

strategies.

The

import- substituting industrialization (ISI) development strategy, which prevailed in Latin

America for nearly five decades until the 1970s, was based on producer-driven commodity

chains.

Transnational

corporations,

which

have

actively

tapped

Latin

America's

oil,

mineral, and agricultural resources since the nineteenth century, were invited to establish

more

advanced

manufacturing

industries

in

the

region,

beginning

with

automobile

assembly plants in large countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina in the 1920s.

By

the 1950s and 1960s, a range of advanced ISI factories were spread throughout the region

in diverse industries such as petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals, automobiles, electrical and

non-electrical machinery, and computers (Gereffi and Wyman, 1990).

Output was mainly

destined

for

the

domestic

market,

although

in

the

1970s

more

attention

was

given

to

manufactured

exports

to

offset

the

costly

import

bills

associated

with

ISI

deepening.

Buyer-driven commodity chains, by contrast, have been virtually ignored in Latin America

since

the

transnational

firms

that

established

ISI

were

primarily

interested

in

Latin

America's domestic markets, not exports. This allowed the local exporters in the East Asian

NIEs that pursued export- oriented industrialization (EOI) to

gain the lion's share of U.S.

and

European

markets

for

the

profitable

consumer

goods

that

are

only

supplied

via

buyer-driven chains.

Both

buyer-driven

and

producer-driven

commodity

chains

are

useful

in

analyzing

and

evaluating

global

industries.

As

with

traditional

supply-chain

perspectives,

the

commodity chains framework is based on the flow of goods involved in the production and

distribution of apparel products. However, the global commodity chains approach differs in

at least four respects from related concepts, such as the

chain

1)

incorporates an explicit international dimension into the analysis;

2)

focuses on the power exercised by the lead firms in different segments of the

commodity chain, and it illustrates how power shifts over time;

3)

views

the

coordination

of

the

entire

chain

as

a

key

source

of

competitive

advantage that requires using networks as a strategic asset; and

4)

looks

at

organizational

learning

as

one

of

the

critical

mechanisms

by

which

firms try to improve or consolidate their positions within the chain.

One

of

the

major

hypotheses

of

the

global

commodity

chains

approach

is

that

- 4 -

development

requires

linking

up

with

the

most

significant

firms

an

industry.

These lead firms are not necessarily the traditional vertically integrated manufacturers, nor

do

they

even

need

to

be

involved

in

making

finished

products.

They

can

be

located

upstream

or

downstream

from

manufacturing

(such

as

the

fashion

designers

or

private

label

retailers

in

apparel),

or

they

can

be

involved

in

the

supply

of

critical

components

(such

as

microprocessor

companies

like

Intel

and

software

firms

like

Microsoft

in

the

computer industry).

What distinguishes lead firms from their followers or subordinates is

that

they

control

access

to

major

resources

(such

as

product

design,

new

technologies,

brand

names,

or

consumer

demand)

that

generate

the

most

profitable

returns

in

the

industry.

- 5 -