Extending Global Value Chain Governance: Addressing Grand Challenges in Amazonian Rainforest

Objective: the rise of grand challenges such as climate change and deforestation raises questions about how Global Value Chains (GVC) respond to such pressures. This study investigates how power dynamics and value creation within value chains address these challenges. Theoretical approach: GVC theory provides a framework for understanding how geographically dispersed production is coordinated and how firms, institutions, and norms shape power dynamics and value creation and appropriation. Method: an abductive case study of Amazonian communities supplying andiroba seeds, based on data from 17 stakeholders collected through interviews, focus groups, field observations, and document analysis. Results: the analysis reveals persistent asymmetries in bargaining power over pricing and value distribution. Inclusive practices emerged in response to socioeconomic vulnerability, while NGOs and cooperatives exercised demonstrative power by mobilizing resources and building capabilities. Institutional power regulated forest resource access, and constitutive power shaped conventions around deforestation. Local communities demonstrated bottom-up agency through adaptive strategies and resilience. Conclusions: the study advances the literature of power in GVC by incorporating bottom-up agency as a new dimension.