Which governance structures drive economic, environmental, and social upgrading? A quantitative analysis in the assembly industries

As industries are becoming increasingly global, researchers and practitioners are compelled to look at supply chains (SCs) from a global perspective. In this respect, the Global Value Chain (GVC) framework is particularly useful in understanding global dynamics because it relates the nature of relationships between firms (governance) to the possibilities for firms to move toward higher value-added activities (upgrading). Whereas the literature to date has explored these issues via qualitative approaches, this paper explores the effect that different forms of governance with suppliers and customers have on economic (product, process, functional), environmental and social upgrading based on an analysis of the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) data. The results show that participating to GVCs supports only some forms of upgrading and only under specific governance structures.