• Corpus ID: 54764666

Global production chains and value added : China's position in the consumer eletronic industry

@inproceedings{Morais2012GlobalPC,
  title={Global production chains and value added : China's position in the consumer eletronic industry},
  author={Isabela Nogueira de Morais},
  year={2012}
}

• I. Morais
• Published 1 December 2012
• Business

The objective of this article is to map China’s presence in global production chains in the electronics industry, with special emphasis given to value added. It discusses whether China is upwards in the global value hierarchies and if the country is getting distance from the traditional contractor manufacturing position, generally responsible for standardized activities with less qualification and less value added. In order to do so, the article presents the concept of global value chains, characterizing its actors and the position of the lead firm in aggregating value. In the sequence, it draws a map of Chinese foreign trade, reinforcing the relevance of regional integration to its global insertion and underlining the distinctions between processing and ordinary trade. Once reviewing the literature about the value added of Chinese exports, the article comes to some relevant conclusions about the recent domestic value added performance in the electronics sector. Finally, the article presents two case studies on Chinese lead firms in the sector analyzed, Lenovo and Huawei, in order to illustrate the diversity of strategies for the creation of lead firms in that country.