• Fashion, Industry and Education
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.11-23
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• 2016

This study investigated the comparative advantages of the Bangladeshi and Vietnamese apparel industries using Global Value Chain (GVC) framework. In this study, the GVC framework was expanded to include social and environmental sustainability issues. Secondary data, for the 2012 - 2013 period, were collected and analyzed for each component of the apparel GVC. The findings indicated that while both countries have unique comparative advantages, Vietnam clearly emerged as a leader on many GVC components. Bangladesh's comparative advantage lies in lower wages, producing high volume orders, and lean manufacturing. In spite of Vietnam's higher labor costs, it has comparative advantages in higher productivity, skilled and trained workers, manufacturing of intricate styles of high quality, agility and flexible manufacturing, more developed infrastructure and logistic services as well as greater social and environmental compliances. This study contributes towards insight into best sourcing fit for fashion brand business models. Based on the findings, fashion driven companies offering more complex styles at a faster rate will benefit from choosing Vietnam. In contrast, Bangladesh might be a better choice for high volume driven companies that offer basic apparel and better value for their consumers. From theoretical perspective, the research makes an important contribution by expanding the GVC framework.

• Management & Information Systems Review
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• v.27
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• pp.101-129
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• 2008

This study introduced the inclusion of Global Value Chain (GVC) as a strategy for the globalization of domestic industries. In addition, this study intended to highlight direct foreign investment as an important opportunity for enhancing the competitiveness of the domestic small and medium firms. That is, globalization could be realized not only through simple capital inflow, but also through domestic industry's participation in the overseas production network. The analysis of the trend and pattern of direct foreign investment revealed that the FDI inflows heavily dependent on the USA and Japan have been diversified steadily over time. In spite of recent decline trend of overall FDI amount, inflows from European countries in machinery and chemical industries have been rising. These rising and diversifying trends in these industries are promising since FDI inflows have the potential of playing an important role in achieving productivity growth of domestic industries, particularly in the area of comparatively fragile industries such as machinery and chemicals. In the same logic, it is crucial for future growth of Korea that the small and medium firms find their competitive edges through strengthening production networks with foreign multi-national companies. Thus, it is suggested that the policy of globalization of small and medium firms should be based on the firm understanding of GVC and FDI pattern of industries.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.3
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• pp.1217-1230
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• 2021

Using a multinomial logit model with the panel-data set of Vietnam manufacturing firms, this paper investigates the impacts of foreign direct investment (FDI) - small and medium enterprises (SMEs) linkages and other factors on SMEs' participation in the global value chain (GVC). We consider GVC firms are those engaging in any of the three modes including (i) using domestic inputs to export (D2E), (ii) using imported inputs to produce for the domestic market (I2P), (iii) using imported inputs to export (I2E). We discover that FDI-SME linkages statistically encourage Vietnamese SMEs to integrate into the GVC via I2P and I2E, while no statistical association between FDI-SME linkage and D2E participation is found. GVCs participation likelihood is also positively correlated with the introduction of new product introduction. The establishment of firms' production facilities in industrial zones and foreign ownership are both reported to be significantly decisive factors to SMEs' decisions on GVC participation. Besides, there is a strong association between firms' attributes, i.e. employment, capital intensity as well as financial access, and their participation in the GVC. Local governance quality (proxied by the Provincial Competitiveness Index) and the share of skilled labor at the province-level can facilitate firms' integration into GVCs, while greater market concentration may be a hurdle to such potential.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.6
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• pp.1-19
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• 2021

This paper examines the impact of sanitary and phytosanitary standards (SPS) and technical barriers to trade (TBT) on Korean exports, taking global value chains (GVC) participation into consideration. Using product-level import data from 2000 to 2014, we find heterogeneous effects of importers' SPS and TBT on Korean exports depending on the degree and position of GVC participation. According to the results, trade restrictive effects of SPS and TBT are smaller for industries that are more deeply involved in GVC. However, trade restrictive effects are greater for industries located at a relatively upstream production stage in GVC.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.75-94
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• 2021

Purpose - This article will take the Korean manufacturing industry as an example to estimate Korea's global value chain status from the perspective of overall and sub-industry, hoping to provide a theoretical reference for Korean manufacturing to climb the global value chain. Design/methodology - Based on the WIOD data. The data is calculated by using MATLAB (2014a) coding. The data for 6 sectors are classified according to the International Standard Industrial Classification revision 3 (ISIC Rev. 3), the WIOD data are used to calculate and compare the position, participation and dynamics of the Korea, China and USA' manufacturing industry in the 1995-2016. Findings - The empirical results supported conclusions of the theoretical model. In the Korean GVC of electrical and optical sector, while stronger forward linkages than backward linkages to GVC are advantageous for an average advanced country, the benefits of downstream tasks are pronounced for non-advanced countries. And proved the correlation for an index to capture a country's upstream position or downstream position, it makes sense to compare that Korea's exports of intermediates in the same sector that are used by China and USA. Originality/value - The first is to re-examine the characteristics of South Korea's participation in global value chains under a more systematic and accurate theoretical framework, which provides a new empirical reference for related research; the second is to content covers of the manufacturing 6 sectors, so as to more completely describe the characteristics of Korean manufacturing's participation in global value chains; The value of this paper is providing empirical evidence of the effect of Korea's the GVC of manufacturing sectors. In the GVC of 6 sectors, first three have a higher position in the value chain and are in the upper middle and upper reaches of the GVC. The latter two have a low GVC position index, which has become the main sector that pulls down the overall position of Korea's manufacturing industry.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.12-23
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• 2021

Due to high proportion of exports, Korea has a higher dependence on the global value chain (GVC) than other major developed countries. This reason, Korea has a structure that is sensitive to GVC changes. This is because Korean exports are concentrated on specific countries and items, and most of the materials for export tend to depend on imports. Currently, export restrictions resulting from trade disputes with Japan can affect the industry of Korea as a whole due to the supply of core materials. Therefore, in order to minimize economic damage caused by export regulations in the current situation, it is necessary to reorganize the GVC, through efforts to rapidly diversify imports and localize imports that depend on Japan. To this end, it is necessary to derive and classify imported goods that depend on Japan, and to localize items that are difficult to diversify imports, and prompt R&D investment is required for this. This study aims to support R&D investment policy through quantitative analysis based on big data rather than a decision-making method based on expert-centered qualitative analysis.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.209-228
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze the changes in trade and industry of Korea and suggest implications from the perspective of global value chains following the spread of COVID-19. To this end, products for prevention of epidemics which is directly related to COVID-19 and IT industries with high GVC participation were analyzed. Due to the spread of COVID-19, the variation in import and export of products for prevention of epidemics was large. In the case of masks, import and export of final goods changed drastically, but the change in intermediate goods was not significant relatively. Korea's IT industry has been differentiated according to major trading partners amid overall changes in GVCs which is summarized as higher forward participation and lower backward participation. While no particular change resulted from COVID-19 has yet been made directly, the need for diversification strategies should be taken into account at a time when the production links with China and Vietnam are close and the dependence on trade with these countries is high. The COVID-19 is still in progress, requiring corporate strategies and policy efforts to respond to changes in GVCs in the post-COVID-19 era.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.243-258
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• 2021

By using the trade in value-added(TiVA) database and employing social network analysis, this paper analyzes changes in global trade to be triggered by the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the US-China trade war. The main results are summarized as follows. First, the BRI will help maintain China's core position as the world's manufacturing hub, and will strengthen Europe's service industry capabilities within the global value chain(GVC) network. Second, the US R&D industry, US wholesale and retail industries, and Germany's automobile industry were considered the most influential industries in the GVC network during the 1995-2011 period, and will retain their status until 2049, when the US-China trade war and the BRI are reflected. Third, the increase of the number of communities shows that the BRI might spur fragmentation of the production process. Finally, community structures of inter-industry trade relations, including China's electronics industry, Germany's automobile industry, and US R&D, show important features that are related to the competiveness of each country's service industries.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.245-267
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the current situation of foreign direct investment of Korea based on GVC (Global Value Chain) perspective and to presentthe policy direction. From GVC perspective which comprehensively describes the world's increasing FDI and imports/exports phenomenon since the 2000s, the level of internationalization of Korea is excessively concentrated in trade. Therefore, the expansion of foreign investment (OFDI, IFDI) is urgently needed. The results of regression analysis using data from 50 countries and the international comparison of major countries including Germany, Switzerland, Singapore, etc, showed that the level of foreign direct investment of Korea is 20 to 30 years behind compared to those major countries. Therefore, exploiting the benefits of trade and foreign direct investment at the same time is needed to increase the level of GDP per capita.

• Korea Trade Review
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• v.46 no.4
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• pp.95-112
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• 2021

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) signed by the 15 Asian countries in 2020 forms the world's largest free trading bloc. Using data for the period 2001 - 2019, this study evaluates global value chains (GVCs) among the RCEP members, with a primary focus on GVC backward participation which involves imports intermediates embodied in exports. This study finds that the RCEP's intra-regional linkages, particularly with the ASEAN members, are significantly higher than its extra-regional linkages in trade and GVC backward participation. Among the individual RCEP member countries, Korea is found to have a particularly strong intra-regional linkages with the ASEAN members in both trade and GVC participation.