IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwpeg/geo-disc-2021_06.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Strategic coupling and regional resilience in times of uncertainty: the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang, China

Author

Listed:
  • Huiwen Gong
  • Robert Hassink
  • Cassandra Wang

Abstract

The question of how regions can remain competitive and resilient in times of uncertainty is a central concern for economic geographers. To date, two key concepts— strategic coupling and regional economic resilience—have been used separately to study regional economic dynamics in times of uncertainty. Through a careful examination of the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang Province, this paper argues that both concepts are essential and should be combined in a coherent manner to better explore the topic of interest. Moreover, it is pointed out that the existing conceptualization of the two concepts suffers from some limitations and a reconceptualization of the two key concepts is needed if economic geographers are to make policy recommendations to local policy-makers.

Suggested Citation

  • Huiwen Gong & Robert Hassink & Cassandra Wang, 2021. "Strategic coupling and regional resilience in times of uncertainty: the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang, China," PEGIS geo-disc-2021_06, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    • Handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwpeg:geo-disc-2021_06
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www-sre.wu.ac.at/sre-disc/geo-disc-2021_06.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Trond Nilsen, 2017. "Firm-driven path creation in arctic peripheries," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 32(2), pages 77-94, March.
    2. Neil M Coe & Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2019. "Global production networks: mapping recent conceptual developments," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 775-801.
    3. Ron Boschma, 2015. "Towards an Evolutionary Perspective on Regional Resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(5), pages 733-751, May.
    4. Jiawei Wu & Yehua Dennis Wei & Qizhai Li & Feng Yuan, 2018. "Economic Transition and Changing Location of Manufacturing Industry in China: A Study of the Yangtze River Delta," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-28, July.
    5. Danny MacKinnon, 2012. "Beyond strategic coupling: reassessing the firm-region nexus in global production networks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 227-245, January.
    6. Anthony Soroka & Gillian Bristow & Mohamed Naim & Laura Purvis, 2020. "Measuring regional business resilience," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(6), pages 838-850, June.
    7. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2009. "Regional Development and the Competitive Dynamics of Global Production Networks: An East Asian Perspective," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 325-351.
    8. Bellandi, Marco & Lombardi, Silvia, 2012. "Specialized markets and Chinese industrial clusters: The experience of Zhejiang Province," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 626-638.
    9. James T. Murphy & Seth Schindler, 2011. "Globalizing development in Bolivia? Alternative networks and value-capture challenges in the wood products industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 61-85, January.
    10. Coe, Neil M. & Yeung, Henry Wai-chung, 2015. "Global Production Networks: Theorizing Economic Development in an Interconnected World," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198703914.
    11. Ron Martin & Peter Sunley, 2015. "On the notion of regional economic resilience: conceptualization and explanation," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 1-42.
    12. Henry Wai‐Chung Yeung, 2009. "Transnational Corporations, Global Production Networks, and Urban and Regional Development: A Geographer's Perspective on Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 197-226, June.
    13. Susan Christopherson & Jonathan Michie & Peter Tyler, 2010. "Regional resilience: theoretical and empirical perspectives," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 3(1), pages 3-10.
    14. Chun Yang, 2009. "Strategic Coupling of Regional Development in Global Production Networks: Redistribution of Taiwanese Personal Computer Investment from the Pearl River Delta to the Yangtze River Delta, China," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(3), pages 385-407.
    15. Dirk Fornahl & Nils Grashof (ed.), 2021. "The Globalization of Regional Clusters," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 19540.
    16. Martin Hess & Henry Wai-Chung Yeung, 2006. "Whither Global Production Networks in Economic Geography? Past, Present, and Future," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(7), pages 1193-1204, July.
    17. Ron Martin, 2012. "Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and recessionary shocks," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 12(1), pages 1-32, January.
    18. Gillian Bristow & Adrian Healy, 2014. "Regional Resilience: An Agency Perspective," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(5), pages 923-935, May.
    19. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2015. "Regional development in the global economy: A dynamic perspective of strategic coupling in global production networks," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, March.
    20. Yehua Dennis Wei & Xinyue Ye, 2004. "Regional Inequality in China: A Case Study of Zhejiang Province," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(1), pages 44-60, February.
    21. Stuart Dawley & Danny MacKinnon & Robert Pollock, 2019. "Creating strategic couplings in global production networks: regional institutions and lead firm investment in the Humber region, UK," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 19(4), pages 853-872.
    22. John R. Bryson & Vida Vanchan, 2020. "COVID‐19 and Alternative Conceptualisations of Value and Risk in GPN Research," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 111(3), pages 530-542, July.
    23. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2021. "Regional worlds: from related variety in regional diversification to strategic coupling in global production networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(6), pages 989-1010, June.
    24. Canfei He & Tao Chen & Shengjun Zhu, 2021. "Do not put eggs in one basket: related variety and export resilience in the post-crisis era [Exports and financial shocks]," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 30(6), pages 1655-1676.
    25. Aiqi Wu & Cassandra C. Wang & Shengxiao Li, 2015. "Geographical knowledge search, internal R&D intensity and product innovation of clustering firms in Zhejiang, China," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 553-572, August.
    26. Chun Yang, 2013. "From Strategic Coupling to Recoupling and Decoupling: Restructuring Global Production Networks and Regional Evolution in China," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(7), pages 1046-1063, July.
    27. Rory Horner, 2014. "Strategic decoupling, recoupling and global production networks: India’s pharmaceutical industry," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(6), pages 1117-1140.
    28. Don J. Webber & Adrian Healy & Gillian Bristow, 2018. "Regional Growth Paths and Resilience: A European Analysis," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 94(4), pages 355-375, August.
    29. Zhou, Yu, 2008. "Synchronizing Export Orientation with Import Substitution: Creating Competitive Indigenous High-Tech Companies in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2353-2370, November.
    30. Chun Yang, 2014. "Market rebalancing of global production networks in the Post-Washington Consensus globalizing era: Transformation of export-oriented development in China," Review of International Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 130-156, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Carolin Hulke & Linus Kalvelage & Jim Kairu & Javier Revilla Diez & Lucas Rutina, 2022. "Navigating through the storm: conservancies as local institutions for regional resilience in Zambezi, Namibia [From domestic to regional to global: Factory Africa and factory Latin America?: Chapte," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 305-322.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Huiwen Gong & Robert Hassink & Cassandra C Wang, 2022. "Strategic coupling and institutional innovation in times of upheavals: the industrial chain chief model in Zhejiang, China [Institutional change in economic geography]," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 279-303.
    2. Ron Boschma, 2021. "Global Value Chains from an Evolutionary Economic Geography perspective: a research agenda," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2134, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2021.
    3. Carolin Hulke & Linus Kalvelage & Jim Kairu & Javier Revilla Diez & Lucas Rutina, 2022. "Navigating through the storm: conservancies as local institutions for regional resilience in Zambezi, Namibia [From domestic to regional to global: Factory Africa and factory Latin America?: Chapte," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 305-322.
    4. Gavin Bridge & Alexander Dodge, 2022. "Regional assets and network switching: shifting geographies of ownership, control and capital in UK offshore oil [Temporality and the evolution of GPNs: remaking BHP’s Pilbara iron ore network]," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 15(2), pages 367-388.
    5. Vinko Muštra & Blanka Šimundić & Zvonimir Kuliš, 2020. "Does innovation matter for regional labour resilience? The case of EU regions," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(5), pages 955-970, October.
    6. Mathieu P A Steijn & Pierre-Alexandre Balland & Ron Boschma & David L Rigby, 2023. "Technological diversification of U.S. cities during the great historical crises," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 23(6), pages 1303-1344.
    7. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2015. "Regional development in the global economy: A dynamic perspective of strategic coupling in global production networks," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, March.
    8. Qingyi Chen & Qinglan Qian & Zuolin Yao & Na Yang & Junyue Tong & Yujiao Wang, 2022. "Global–Local Knowledge Spillover Strategic Coupling Network: Biopharmaceutical Industry Study of GBA, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, November.
    9. Martini, Barbara, 2020. "Resilience and economic structure. Are they related?," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 62-91.
    10. Vitor Klein Schmidt & Aurora Carneiro Zen & Bernardo Fernandes Soares & Bruno Anicet Bittencourt, 2023. "Trajectory and cluster resilience elements: The case of the Brazilian wine cluster of the Serra Gaúcha," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 596-624, June.
    11. McWilliam, Sarah E. & Kim, Jung Kwan & Mudambi, Ram & Nielsen, Bo Bernhard, 2020. "Global value chain governance: Intersections with international business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(4).
    12. Henry Wai-chung Yeung, 2021. "The trouble with global production networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 428-438, March.
    13. Manning, Stephan, 2022. "From mainstream to niche: How value regimes shift in emerging economy upgrading," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(6).
    14. Jing Xiao & Ron Boschma & Martin Andersson, 2018. "Resilience in the European Union: the effect of the 2008 crisis on the ability of regions in Europe to develop new industrial specializations," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 27(1), pages 15-47.
    15. Grzegorz Micek & Robert Guzik & Krzysztof Gwosdz & Bolesław Domański, 2021. "Newcomers from the Periphery: The International Expansion of Polish Automotive Companies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-18, May.
    16. Xiaohui Hu & Chun Yang, 2019. "Institutional change and divergent economic resilience: Path development of two resource-depleted cities in China," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(16), pages 3466-3485, December.
    17. Chun Yang & Canfei He, 2017. "Transformation of China's ‘World Factory’: Production Relocation and Export Evolution of the Electronics Firms," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 108(5), pages 571-591, October.
    18. Marianne Sensier & Elvira Uyarra, 2020. "Investigating the Governance Mechanisms that Sustain Regional Economic Resilience and Inclusive Growth," Economics Discussion Paper Series 2005, Economics, The University of Manchester.
    19. Xiaohui Hu & Robert Hassink, 2015. "Overcoming the Dualism between Adaptation and Adaptability in Regional Economic Resilience," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1533, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Sep 2015.
    20. Donald Houston, 2020. "Local resistance to rising unemployment in the context of the COVID‐19 mitigation policies across Great Britain," Regional Science Policy & Practice, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(6), pages 1189-1209, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Regional resilience; strategic coupling; Zhejiang; China; value chains; policy;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wiw:wiwpeg:geo-disc-2021_06. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Gunther Maier (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/en/wgi .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.