服装商品链中的国际贸易与产业升级【外文翻译】

外文翻译

原文

International Trade and Industrial Upgrading in the Apparel

Commodity Chain

Material Source:Journal of International Economics,l999,48(1)

Author:

Gary Geref?

Abstract

：

This

article uses

a global

commodity chains

perspective to

analyze the social

and

organizational

dimensions

of

international

trade

networks.

In

linking

international trade and industrial upgrading, this article speci?es: the mechanisms by

which

organizational

learning

occurs

in

trade

networks;

typical

trajectories

from

assembly

to

OEM

and

OBM

export

roles;

and

the

organizational

conditions

that

facilitate industrial upgrading moves such as the shift from assembly to full-package

networks. The empirical focus is the apparel industry, with an emphasis on Asia. ?

1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords:

Global

commodity

chains;

Industrial

upgrading;

OEM;

OBM;

Apparel

Globalization

has

altered

the

competitive

dynamics

of

nations,

?rms,

and

industries.

This

is

most

clearly

seen

in

changing

patterns

of

international

trade,

where

the

explosive

growth

of

imports

in

developed

countries

indicates

that

the

center of gravity for the production and export of many manufactures has moved to

an

ever

expanding

array

of

newly

industrializing

economies

(NIEs)

in

the

Third

World. This shift is central to the ‘East Asian miracle,’ which refers to the handful

of high-performing Asian economies that have attained lofty per capita growth rates,

relatively

low

income

inequality,

high

educational

attainment,

record

levels

of

domestic

saving

and

investment,

and

booming

exports

from

the

1960s

to

the

mid-1990s

(World

Bank,

1993).

Regardless

of

whether

the

growth

is

due

to

productivity gains or to capital accumulation (Krugman, 1994; Young, 1994, 1995),

their economic achievement is largely attributed to the adoption of export- oriented

industrialization as the region’s main development strategy.

This view of international trade as the fulcrum for sustained economic growth

in East Asia, while unassailable in its macroeconomic basics, nonetheless leaves a

number

of

critical

questions

unanswered

in

terms

of

the

microinstitutional

foundations

supporting

East

Asian

development.

Why

were

Japan

and

the

East

Asian

NIEs

(South

Korea,

Taiwan,

Hong

Kong

and

Singapore)

so

successful

in

exporting

to

distant

Western

markets,

given

the

formidable

spatial

and

cultural

distances that had to be bridged? How were these East Asian nations able to sustain

their high rates of export-oriented growth over three to four decades, in the face of a

variety of adverse economic factors such as oil price hikes, rising wage rates, labor

shortages, currency appreciations, a global recession, and spreading protectionism in

their major export markets? Under what conditions can trade-based growth become

a

vehicle

for

genuine

industrial

upgrading,

given

the

frequent

criticisms

made

of

low-wage,

low-skill,

assembly-oriented

export

ac

tivities?

Do

Asia’s

accomplishments

in

trade-

led

industrialization

contain

signi?

cant

lessons

for

other

regions of the world?

This

article

will

address

these

questions

using

a

global

commodity

chains

framework. A commodity chain refers to the whole range of activities involved in

the

design,

production,

and

marketing

of

a

product.

A

critical

distinction

in

this

approach is between buyer-driven and producer-driven commodity chains. Japan in

the 1950s and 1960s, the East Asian NIEs during the 1970s and 1980s, and China in

the

1990s

became

world-class

exporters

primarily

by

mastering

the

dynamics

of

buyer-driven

commodity

chains,

which

supply

a

wide

range

of

labor- intensive

consumer products such as apparel, footwear, toys, and sporting goods. The key to

success in East Asia’s buyer

-driven chains was to move from the mere assembly of

imported

inputs

(traditionally

associated

with

export-processing

zones)

to

a

more

domestically

integrated

and

higher

value- added

form

of

exporting

known

alternatively

as

full-package

supply

or

OEM

(original

equipment

manufacturing)

production.

Subsequently,

Japan

and

some

?rms

in

the

Ea

st

Asian

NIEs

pushed

beyond

the

OEM

export

role

to

original

brand

name

manufacturing

(OBM)

by

joining

their

production

expertise

with

the

design

and

sale

of

their

own

branded

merchandise in domestic and overseas markets.

From

a

global

commodity

chains

per

spective,

East

Asia’s

transition

from

assembly to full- package supply derives in large measure from its ability to establish

close linkages with a diverse array of lead ?rms in buyer

-

driven chains. Lead ?rms

are

the

primary

sources

of

material

inputs,

technology

transfer,

and

knowledge

in

these

organizational

networks.

In

the

apparel

commodity

chain,

different

types

of

lead ?rms use different networks and source in different parts of

1

Throughout this article, OEM production will be used as a synonymous term

for

relational

contracting,

speci?cation

contracting,

and

full

-package

supply.

the

world.

Retailers

and

marketers

tend

to

rely

on

full-package

sourcing

networks,

in

which

they

buy

ready-made

apparel

primarily

from

Asia,

where

manufacturers

in

places like Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea have historically specialized in this

kind

of

production.

As

wage

levels

in

those

countries

have

gone

up,

East

Asian

manufacturers have tended to develop multilayered global sourcing networks where

low-wage assembly can be done in other parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America,

while

the

NIE

manufacturers

play

a

critical

coordinating

role

in

the

full- package

production

process.

Branded

manufacturers,

by

contrast,

tend

to

create

production

networks

that

focus

on

apparel

assembly

using

imported

inputs.

Whereas

full-package

sourcing

networks

are

generally

global,

production

networks

established by branded manufacturers are predominantly regional. US manufacturers

go to Mexico and the Caribbean Basin, European Union ?rms look

to North Africa

and Eastern Europe, and Japan and the East Asian NIEs look to lower-wage regions

within Asia.

Industrial upgrading, from this perspective, involves organizational learning to

improve the position of ?rms or nations in international trade networks (Geref? and

Tam,

1998).

Participation

in

global

commodity

chains

is

a

necessary

step

for

industrial

upgrading

because

it

puts

?rms

and

economies

on

potentially

dynamic

learning curves. There are many obstacles, however, to moving up these chains from

labor-intensive activities like export- oriented assembly, to more integrated forms of

manufacturing

like

OEM

and

OBM

production,

to

the

most

pro?table

and/or

skill-intensive economic activities such as breakthrough innovations in

new

goods

and services

, design, marketing, and ?nance. Therefore, we need to address not only

why industrial upgrading occurs in global commodity chains, but also how it occurs.

A

commodity

chains

framework

that

attempts

to

link

international

trade

and

industrial upgrading must specify: the mechanisms by which organizational learning

occurs

in

trade

networks;

typical

trajectories

among

export

roles;

and

the

organizational conditions that facilitate industrial upgrading moves such as the shift

from assembly to full-package networks.

The economic theory of industrial upgrading is that as capital (both human and

physical)

becomes

more

abundant

relative

to

labor

and

the

endowments

of

other

countries,

nations

develop

comparative

advantages

in

capital-and

skill-intensive

industries (Porter, 1990). This article will show, however, that upgrading does not

occur to a random set of capital-or skill-intensive industries or activities, but rather

to

products

that

are

organizationally

related

through

the

lead

?rms

in

global

commodity chains.

The microfoundations of this upgrading pattern involve both forward (market-

ing) and backward (sourcing) linkages from production, and the kind of learning that

occurs across these segments. With regard to marketing, countries that are upgrading

within c

ommodity chains have already identi?ed the buyers for their products within

the chains. The implication is that marketing outside the chain is more dif?cult due

to

search costs

and the fact

that

foreign buyers provide access to

information that

assists local suppliers in their export and marketing efforts (Rhee et al., 1984). For

sourcing

linkages,

both

technological

and

tacit

knowledge

exists

about

how

and

where to establish new export capacity for ?nished products. There is a clear pattern

of

organizational

succession

in

buyer-driven

chains,

however,

whereby

foreign

buyers

that

occupy

distinct

positions

(or

price

points)

in

the

retail

sectors

of

their

home markets source from each of the major Asian exporting nations in distinctive

cycles

or

sequences

(Ger

ef?,

1994).

This

succession

mechanism

drives

the

geographical

expansion

of

global

sourcing

networks,

as

buyers

for

less

expensive

goods are pushed into lower-cost production sites, and it is also crucial for industrial

upgrading

because

the

higher

price

po

ints

of

fashionable

retailers

re?ect

more

complicated products and differentiated styles.

Our

empirical

focus

in

this

article

will

be

the

apparel

industry,

with

an

emphasis on Asia. This selection is justi?ed on multiple grounds. Apparel is one of

the oldest and largest export industries in the world. Most nations produce for the

international textile and apparel market (Dickerson, 1995, p. 6), making this one of

the most global of all industries. Apparel is the typical ‘starter’ industry for countries

engaged in

export-oriented industrialization, and it played the leading

role in

East

Asia’s

early

export

growth.

The

apparel

industry

is

a

prototypical

buyer

-driven

commodity chain because it generates a highly aggressive pattern of global sourcing

through

a

variety

of

organizational

channels,

including

giant

cost-driven

discount

chains

(Wal-Mart,

Kmart,

or

Target),

upscale

branded

marketers

(Liz

Claiborne,

Tommy

Hil?ger,

Nautica),

apparel

specialty

stores

(The

Limited,

The

Gap),

and

burgeoning

private

label

programs

among

mass

merchandise

retailers

(JC

Penney,

Sears). Finally, apparel embodies two contrasting production systems characteristic

of buyer-driven chains: the assembly and the OEM models. Whereas the assembly