Socio-Economic Review Advance Access originally published online on October 4, 2007
Socio-Economic Review 2008 6(2):227-260; doi:10.1093/ser/mwm010
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National capitalisms and global production networks: an analysis of their interaction in two global industries1
Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 2AP, UK
Correspondence: col21{at}cam.ac.uk
This paper studies the interaction between global systems of production/innovation and national capitalisms, from the theoretical perspectives of varieties of capitalism and global value chains or global production networks (GPNs). The paper's theoretical contribution lies in two areas: it links firms' construction of GPNs to national institutional configurations of lead firms but it also argues that under the impact of global markets the notions of national institutional reproduction and comparative economic advantage need to be re-conceptualized to reflect the complexity of global effects. The empirical part presents a comparative study of two industries in three countries—the UK, the United States and Germany. The paper utilizes original data on GPNs, based on a large number of interviews in firms and associations.
Key Words: varieties of capitalism global economy Germany UK the United States outsourcing