Petty commodities, serious business

The governance of fashion jewellery chains between China and Ghana

Bibliographic Data

ID5114557
AuthorsHeidi Østbø Haugen (0000-0001-6719-9235, Department of Sociology and Human Geography University of Oslo Box 1096 0317 Oslo Norway, corresponding author)
Year2018
Volume18
Issue2
Pages307-325
Publication date2018-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGlobal Networks (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1470-2266 • E-ISSN: 1471-0374
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/glob.12164
OpenAlexW2618955637
LanguageEN
Citations received19
References cited52

In many parts of the world, people access consumer goods mainly via informal economic networks. In this article, I analyse the governance of petty commodity chains through a case study of Chinese fashion jewellery produced for the Ghanaian market. 'Petty commodity chains' denotes a particular type of global value chain, where production, trade, and distribution are carried out by small, unregistered businesses, between which personalized relationships and informal infrastructure enable transactions. These chains are neither controlled by lead firms at the production or distribution ends, nor made up of pure market linkages. Weak formal institutions and an intensely competitive commercial environment encourage business actors to establish enduring relationships. Credit relations run through long stretches of the chain and create mutual dependencies. The concept of 'beholden value chains' is introduced to describe the co-dependency between business actors and the coordination of activities in petty commodity chains

Business · China · Commerce · Commodity · Commodity market · Corporate governance · Economics · Industrial organization · Market economy · Microeconomics · Asian Industrial and Economic Development · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Innovation and Socioeconomic Development · Finance

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access