Search Results (22)

This study evaluates the implications of Egypt’s accession to the BRICS+ bloc by integrating a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum Likelihood gravity model with a comprehensive PESTEL analysis. Using panel data on Egypt’s bilateral trade with BRICS+ from 2005 to 2024, our econometric results reveal that partner-country economic size and cultural proximity are the primary drivers of trade, whereas geographical distance exerts a negligible effect. Furthermore, trade policy variables—specifically tariffs, exchange rate fluctuations, and existing preferential trade agreements—significantly shape trade flows, while logistics performance and general trade openness demonstrate limited short-term impact. Beyond trade mechanics, the PESTEL analysis indicates that while BRICS+ membership enhances Egypt’s strategic autonomy and broadens its political influence, tangible economic gains remain heavily constrained by persistent structural trade imbalances and a lack of export diversification. Although the bloc offers valuable opportunities for human capital development and green infrastructure financing, technological cooperation is hindered by capacity disparities, and the soft-law nature of the alliance limits the enforceability of economic agreements. Ultimately, this study concludes that to maximize the benefits of BRICS+, Egypt must implement sustained structural reforms aimed at upgrading industrial competitiveness, diversifying its export base, strengthening domestic technological capabilities, and embedding itself more deeply within global value chains. Full article

Mitigating trade-embodied carbon is essential for the sustainable, low-carbon transition of China’s manufacturing sector amid increasingly integrated domestic and global production networks. This study measures total trade-embodied carbon, embodied carbon outflows, and embodied carbon exports within a China-embedded global multi-regional input–output framework. Using a panel dataset covering 30 provinces, 15 manufacturing industries, and 7 benchmark years from 2002 to 2020, the study employs high-dimensional fixed-effects models to examine the effect of green finance—defined as finance directed toward environmentally sustainable and low-carbon activities—on trade-embodied carbon. The results show that green finance significantly reduces trade-embodied carbon, with a relatively stronger effect in the domestic trade dimension. Mechanistic analysis indicates that this effect operates through both technological and structural channels. Heterogeneity analysis further suggests that the carbon mitigation effect of green finance is more pronounced in the eastern and central regions and in energy-intensive industries. This study extends the analysis of the environmental effects of green finance from the value-chain trade perspective and provides empirical evidence to advance the low-carbon transition of manufacturing under intertwined domestic and global production networks. Full article

Animal welfare has become an increasingly prominent attribute in global food markets, embedded within sustainability narratives, quality claims, and ethical branding strategies. However, the proliferation of animal welfare claims has not always been matched by equivalent improvements in on-farm welfare outcomes. This paper conceptualises animal welfare washing (AWW) as a systemic phenomenon in animal-based supply chains, whereby welfare narratives, standards, and certifications create the appearance of ethical production without delivering measurable improvements in animal welfare. Drawing on the interdisciplinary literature from animal welfare science, sustainability studies, trade governance, and food policy, this conceptual essay examines how AWW emerges from the interaction of industrial farming systems, fragmented public and private regulations, trade incentives, and information asymmetries. The analysis shows that AWW undermines ethical commitments to animals, regulatory credibility, and food quality governance. Welfare claims frequently operate as credence-based quality signals, despite weak links to verifiable welfare outcomes. Together, these conditions enable symbolic compliance and regulatory arbitrage across global value chains. As a result, genuinely higher-welfare producers face distorted competition, while consumers encounter diminishing trust in sustainability labels. It is argued that addressing AWW requires a shift toward outcome-based measurable welfare standards, stronger enforcement, improved integration with food quality regulation, and trade-compatible governance frameworks that reward performance rather than symbolic claims. By situating AWW within broader sustainability and trade dynamics, this paper advances debates on ethical food governance. Full article

Globalization has reorganized industrial spatial patterns, embedding regional economies into complex global production systems. However, the existing literature primarily focuses on the national level, leaving the “global-national-local” multi-scale linkages of sub-national regions underexplored. Focusing on Guangdong, which is China’s most open economic gateway, this study constructs a nested Multi-Regional input–output (MRIO) model to systematically reveal its industrial linkage paths across multiple scales. The results demonstrate that Guangdong features “strong local services and extensive global connections.” Specifically, the network is led by the high-R&D-intensity category and supported by energy and low-R&D categories, highlighted by two core supply paths, which are non-metallic mineral supply for construction and metal product support for optical–electrical manufacturing. Four heterogeneous modes are identified: resource security, innovation-driven dual circulation, cost-competitive regional division, and export-oriented service support. Crucially, the provincial “domestic intermediate chains plus international core chains” logic underscores Guangdong’s role as a bridge connecting Global and Domestic Value Chains. Theoretically, this work enriches the local dimension of Global Production Network theory. Methodologically, it provides an operational tool for nested analysis. Practically, it offers policy evidence for open economies to optimize industrial layouts and enhance supply chain resilience. Full article

In the context of globalization, balancing economic growth with social equity is a critical challenge for achieving sustainable development. While Global Value Chains (GVCs) have become a defining feature of the contemporary economy, their specific impact on the urban–rural income gap—a key indicator of common prosperity—remains under-explored. This study empirically investigates the impact of GVC embedding on urban–rural common prosperity in China using panel data from 30 provinces spanning the period 2011–2022. Adopting a dual perspective of “efficiency” (income growth) and “equity” (income distribution), this study constructs a mediation model to analyze the transmission mechanisms. Research indicates that embedding in global value chains not only enhances the income-generating capacity of urban and rural residents but also effectively narrows the urban–rural income gap. Furthermore, its positive contribution to urban–rural common prosperity is both long-term and sustainable. This effect of GVC embedding on urban–rural common prosperity remains significant after conducting various robustness tests. Mechanism analyses reveal that GVC embedding achieves these outcomes by promoting agricultural industrial upgrading, fostering agricultural technological innovation, and stimulating rural entrepreneurial vitality. Notably, heterogeneity tests indicate that these positive effects are more pronounced in eastern, coastal, and economically developed regions, whereas the impact is less evident in central, western, and inland areas. This study holds important policy implications for promoting the development of China’s open economy to a higher level in the era of economic globalization, as well as for realizing urban–rural common prosperity and balanced, sustainable development. Full article

China’s leading development of a complete battery value chain for electric vehicles (EVs) is restructuring the global automotive sector. In contrast with the normal point of view, which emphasizes the role of industrial policy, this article argues that the competitive advantage of China’s EV battery industry lies in firms’ core competency and political economic geography. Based on first-hand empirical material and data obtained from years of fieldwork carried out at an EV battery cluster in south China, this paper identifies the Chinese EV battery industry’s core competency and details how it is built up from below. The current core competency of Chinese battery firms is their mass manufacturing capability, which allows them to supply vehicle manufacturers (OEMs) with lithium-ion batteries of stable and consistent quality at competitive prices. This competency is acquired by firms through technological learning at the workshop level while making use of the experiences they have accumulated while mass producing batteries for consumer electronics sectors. Furthermore, the rapid learning and accumulation of knowledge of battery manufacturing on a large scale is also facilitated by the local industrial cluster environment where firms are embedded. Supported and promoted by local government policies, Chinese EV battery clusters are composed of firms from different segments of a complete battery value chain. The findings have significant implications for battery and car makers in global competition as well as for national and local governments which aim to promote EV battery development. Full article

The Free Trade Area (FTA) strategy and the participation of enterprises in global value chains (GVCs) are important aspects of China’s high-quality economic development stage. This study matches trade data from the China Customs Import and Export database with information from listed firms in the CSMAR database, calculating the firms’ GVC embeddedness and the depth of trade agreements at the firm level. On this basis, this research employs a gravity model with fixed effects to empirically analyze the impact and mechanism of the FTA strategy on the embedding of Chinese listed firms in GVCs, utilizing data from 2000 to 2006. The results demonstrate that the FTA strategy substantially enhances the embeddedness of Chinese listed enterprises in GVCs. The heterogeneity analysis indicates that state-owned enterprises, those located in the central and western regions, manufacturing firms, and high-tech industry enterprises derive greater advantages from the FTA strategy in terms of their embeddedness in GVCs. Moreover, the mechanism analysis indicates that the FTA strategy enhances the embeddedness of enterprises in GVCs by increasing their technological innovation levels. Additionally, the internal control costs of enterprises negatively moderate the impact of the FTA strategy on their embedding in GVCs, and a “substitution effect” exists between asset operating efficiency and the FTA strategy in promoting the GVC embedding of listed firms. These findings provide empirical evidence and policy recommendations for the Chinese government to enhance the FTA strategy and sustainably improve the embeddedness of Chinese listed enterprises in GVCs. Full article

The global and domestic divisions of labor have had a great influence on the economy and environment in China during the last decade. With the refinement of production processes, national value chains (NVCs) coexist with global value chains (GVCs), enabling regions to participate in dual value chains (DVCs) simultaneously. This study calculates the NVCs and GVCs participation of manufacturing sectors in China’s provinces. On this basis, this research adopts a fixed effects model to analyze the impact of GVCs and NVCs participation and their interaction effect on manufacturing upgrades and green development. The results show, first, that significant regional differences in GVCs participation exist among provinces in China. In comparison, provincial NVCs participation demonstrates fewer regional differences. Second, there are significant sectoral differences of GVCs participation in China’s manufacturing industry—high-tech manufacturing is more embedded than other manufacturing industries. The sectoral differences in NVCs participation are relatively small. Third, GVCs and NVCs participation and their interaction effect have significantly promoted the upgrading and green development of manufacturing sectors in provinces of China, and this impact exhibits significant heterogeneity across regions, industries, and NVCs participation modes. The conclusions of this study provide empirical evidence and policy recommendations for the upgrading and green development of China’s manufacturing industry. Full article

The integration of Industry 4.0 technologies, Circular Economy (CE) principles, and Green Human Resource Management (GHRM) offers transformative potential to address global sustainability challenges. Industry 4.0, characterized by advanced digital technologies like IoT, Additive Manufacturing (AM), and Big Data Analytics (BDAA), enhances operational efficiency, resource optimization, and waste minimization. Concurrently, CE redefines economic models through resource conservation, lifecycle extension, and reduced environmental impact, supported by frameworks like ReSOLVE. GHRM aligns human resource practices with sustainability objectives, fostering Green behaviors and embedding environmental considerations into organizational culture. Despite the individual benefits of these frameworks, their combined application remains underexplored, with limited research on their systemic integration. This study addresses this gap by examining the synergies between Industry 4.0 technologies, CE principles, and GHRM strategies, identifying opportunities and challenges in their implementation. A theoretical model is proposed, emphasizing systemic innovation, resource efficiency, and collaborative value chains as key enablers of sustainable development. The model highlights the necessity of aligning technological advancements with human-centric approaches to overcome behavioral, organizational, and infrastructural barriers in transitioning toward sustainability. The findings offer practical insights for policymakers and industry leaders, outlining strategies for integrating Industry 4.0 with CE and GHRM to drive sustainability transitions. By synthesizing technological, environmental, and human resource dimensions, this research contributes both theoretically and practically, positioning organizations to enhance sustainability while maintaining competitiveness in evolving economic landscapes. Full article

Against the backdrop of carbon reduction and low-carbon economic development, this study takes the global paper industry chain as its research subject and employs the SBM-GML model and input–output model to measure the low-carbon TFP and value chain embedding levels of 42 major global economies from 2001 to 2021. Using fixed-effects and threshold effect models, the study examines both the overall and stage-specific impacts of value chain embedding on low-carbon TFP. The results reveal that between 2001 and 2021, while the low-carbon TFP of major countries in the global paper industry chain steadily increased, significant disparities persisted among them. Most countries experienced low-carbon TFP growth driven by technological progress, whereas only a few high low-carbon TFP nations also demonstrated upward trends in technical efficiency. The division of labour position in the value chain significantly promoted low-carbon TFP at a ratio of 1:0.26. In contrast, the low-carbon TFP effects of participation displayed a nonlinear impact with a threshold of 0.21: it exerted an insignificant inhibitory effect in the initial stage but, upon crossing the threshold, resulted in a significant positive effect with a ratio of 1:0.13. These findings highlight the importance of optimizing GVC strategies to achieve sustainable industrial transformation and growth. Full article

In the context of the deepening division of labour in global value chains (GVC) and the goal of “double carbon”, it is important to promote China’s manufacturing industry to break away from the unfavourable situation of “big but not strong” so as to achieve low-carbon transformation and value chain upgrading. Based on the panel data of China’s manufacturing industry from 2006 to 2018, this paper adopts a threshold regression model to analyse the marginal impact of GVC embedding position on carbon productivity. It also comprehensively explores the moderating effects of R&D investment, environmental regulation, industrial structure upgrading, and industrial digitisation on the impact of GVC embedding on carbon productivity in three aspects: forward GVC participation, backward GVC participation, and GVC embedding position. The research shows that forward and backward GVC participation have negative direct effects on carbon productivity in China’s manufacturing sector, but the results of the heterogeneity analysis show that both forward and backward GVC participation are positively associated with carbon productivity in low- and medium-technology manufacturing industries. Improving the GVC embedding position will promote the improvement of carbon productivity, and the promotion effect will be increased and then decreased. Both R&D investment and industrial structure upgrading have strengthened the impact of GVC embedding. Environmental regulation weakens the inhibitory effect of backward GVC participation on carbon productivity, while industry digitisation has a negative moderating effect. Further heterogeneity analysis found that forward simple GVC participation was positively related to carbon productivity. The findings of this paper provide a theoretical and practical foundation for analysing the impact mechanism of GVC embeddedness on carbon productivity in China’s manufacturing industries. It is conducive to promoting China’s manufacturing industries to realise low-carbon transformation and climb up to the high end of the GVC, and it provides certain policy insights for the realization of the goals of “carbon peaking” and “carbon neutrality”. Full article

The spatial structure of urban-related industries and agri-food value chains is important for promoting sustainable linkages. Using an interregional input-output framework, this study explores the geography of inter-industry linkages between financial business services and the Chilean agri-food related industries from a subnational perspective. This framework allows adding evidence on rural-related economic activities and financial business services, covering Chilean internal geography, which has a regional concentration of both the business services supply and the agriculturally engaged regions, potentially blocking territorial competitiveness. Our findings indicate that the relationship between value-added and trade is consistent with the vertical fragmentation of domestic production associated with returns to scale. Consequently, while the value-added financial services are more intense in trade for global value chains, this occurs in regions specialized in agri-food industries and services. Our findings also show that Southern Chilean regions engaged in primary agricultural production have lower levels of financial services directly and indirectly embedded in both domestic and global value chains trade, thus highlighting an uneven geography of vertical integration within the country. Full article

In order to tackle increasingly serious environmental problems, China has been promoting the development of a green economy and guiding the green transformation of various regions and industries through environmental regulation in recent years. By participating in international trade, Hebei Province has been embedded in the global value chain. However, Hebei’s involvement in the high-energy-consuming and polluting manufacturing sector and its lower position in the global value chain have led to serious environmental issues. In practice, the government has promulgated environmental regulations to restrict economic activities of enterprises. What role does environmental regulation play in Hebei’s manufacturing industry’s participation in the global value chain? In order to explore the impact of environmental regulation on Hebei’s manufacturing industry in the global value chain, this paper constructs a fixed-effect econometric model based on the panel data of the embedding level of the value chain of 12 manufacturing sectors in Hebei Province. The research results show that: first, the R & D capacity of the manufacturing industry in Hebei Province still needs to be improved. Second, environmental regulation has promoted the global value chain position of Hebei’s 12 manufacturing sectors. Third, environmental regulation will show obvious heterogeneity to manufacturing industries with different capital intensities and different pollution levels. The impact of environmental regulation on the manufacturing industry with different intensities is different. Therefore, the government should formulate targeted environmental regulation to promote the position of Hebei’s manufacturing industry in the global value chain, such as further improving environmental regulation and increasing the intensity of environmental regulation and increasing the investment of human capital, and cultivating innovative talents. Full article

This study takes Tianjin as an example to analyze how to build the manufacturing industry chain ecosystem. Based on the ecosystem theory, the related literature of manufacturing industry chain and value chain, and combined with various action plans for the development of manufacturing industry in Tianjin, the structure chart and construction roadmap of industrial chain ecosystem were drawn. Based on the input–output data of 42 sectors in Tianjin, this study calculated and analyzed the changes in embedment degree of various manufacturing industries in Global Value Chain (GVC) and National Value Chain (NVC) in Tianjin from 2010 to 2017. It is found that the industrial chain ecosystem is mainly composed of four elements: the enterprises on the industrial chain, the information flowing among enterprises, the goods circulating among enterprises, and the external environment of enterprises. The connection of supply and demand chains, enterprise chains, space chains and value chains forms an industrial chain, and the value chain is a crucial relationship chain in the connection mechanism. In addition, 2015 is a turning point for Tianjin manufacturing industry to embed in GVC and NVC, mainly due to the industrial economic adjustment in Tianjin, the global economic turmoil, and the establishment of the manufacturing industrial park. In terms of R&D intensity, high and medium high-tech manufacturing industries tend to be embedded in GVC, but are easily affected by enterprises and environmental factors. However, low and medium low-tech manufacturing industries still have ample space to integrate into GVC, information and products are important factors to determine the upgrading of its industrial chain. Therefore, in order to better construct the industrial chain ecosystem of manufacturing industry and enhance the industrial competitiveness of Tianjin’s manufacturing industry, it is necessary to give priority to the development of high-tech manufacturing industry, expand the international openness of low-tech manufacturing industry, support regional advantageous industries, and carry out dynamic regulation of industrial ecology. Full article

Active participation in the global value chains (GVC) has been recognized as an important factor in curbing the growth of carbon emissions. However, how GVC embedment affects carbon emissions in economies and what are the pathways of its impact need to be further studied. This paper analyzes the mechanism of GVC embedment affecting carbon emissions embodied in exports (CEEE) and selects 17 manufacturing industries in 36 economies around the world for empirical testing. It is found that GVC embedment significantly reduces the CEEE. Specifically, GVC embedment has a suppressive effect on the CEEE of both developed and developing countries, and the former has a greater suppressive effect than the latter; the effect on the CEEE of low-tech industries is significantly negative but not conducive to carbon emissions reduction in high-tech industries; complex and forward embedment have higher emissions reduction effects compared with simple and backward embedment. More importantly, GVC embedment reduces the CEEE through energy conservation effect, structure effect and transfer effect, and all of them show significant inverted U-shaped mediation effect. The findings of this paper have important implications for the sustainable economic development around the world under the GVC division of labor system. Full article