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Global value chains, private governance and multiple end-markets: insights from Kenyan leather

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  • Giovanni Pasquali
  • Matthew Alford

Abstract

This article analyses how the private governance of global value chains (GVCs) varies across multiple end-markets. This is explored through a two-stage mixed-methods analysis of Kenya’s participation in leather value chains serving Europe, China, India and the COMESA region. We first draw on transaction-level customs data to analyse private governance in terms of the stability of buyer–supplier interactions and presence of intermediaries. We then interrogate these results through supplier interviews. Our article highlights the combined role of product specifications and trust in shaping private governance, and heterogeneity of GVCs across the global North and South, as well as within the South. It further questions commonly held assumptions that lower quality products (generally characterising Southern end-markets) are necessarily governed by market-based coordination mechanisms. We therefore challenge links established in the GVC literature between product standards and private governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Giovanni Pasquali & Matthew Alford, 2022. "Global value chains, private governance and multiple end-markets: insights from Kenyan leather," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 22(1), pages 129-157.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jecgeo:v:22:y:2022:i:1:p:129-157.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lbab018
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Global value chains; end-markets; governance; Kenya; transaction-level customs data; leather;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth
    • M - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics

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