Knowledge, Space, and Economic Governance

The Implications of Knowledge-Based Commodity Chains for Less-Favoured Regions

Datos Bibliográficos

ID4802005
AutoresK Birch (0000-0003-2881-4623, University of Strathclyde, autor de correspondencia), Andrew Cumbers (0000-0002-9876-5241, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, East Quadrangle, University Avenue, Glasgow G12 8QQ, Scotland, autor de correspondencia)
Año2010
Volumen42
Número11
Páginas2581-2601
Fecha de publicación2010-11-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/a43191
OpenAlexW2003361125
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas10
Referencias citadas49

As an increasing amount of manufacturing employment has relocated to the Global South, the developed economies of the Global North have sought new ways of competing within the global economy. In part they have done so through the promotion of the so-called 'knowledge-based economy' (KBE) constituted by innovations and new markets in high-tech industries like telecommunication, information technology, and the life sciences. A KBE discourse has become a central plank of policy at the national and European levels. This raises a series of questions, however, about the ability of less-favoured regions to compete for knowledge-based activities, given existing conditions of uneven development and the unequal distribution of knowledge assets between regions in the developed economies. In this respect, particularly critical to regional outcomes are the forms of economic coordination and governance that emerge in knowledge-based commodity chains. Engaging with recent debates concerned with global commodity chains, this paper builds on the idea that economic governance is increasingly alliance driven, entailing a diverse set of geographies and trust-based relationships between a variety of organisations that include small innovative firms, large multinational corporations, and national (and subnational) policy actors. These forms of governance open up new opportunities for less-favoured regions, although these continue to be constrained by already existing power relations between regions

Alliance · Business · Commodity · Commodity chain · Corporate governance · Economic geography · Economic system · Economics · Economy · General partnership · Industrial organization · Knowledge economy · Market economy · Multinational corporation · Political science · Politics · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development