Platforms and firm capabilities : a study of emerging global value chains

This paper discusses globalization’s impact on production and distribution systems in emerging economies. On one hand, globalization has resulted in an increasing number of multinational corporations to adopt a platform strategy for their customers in emerging markets. On the other hand, developing countries have witnessed the integration of an increasing number of traditional marketplaces into a powerful distribution system, characterized as a specialized market system. Consequently, an unique industrial organization has developed in emerging economies, regarded as emerging global value chains (EGVCs). They comprise a large number of small firms together with a small number of large platform providers and display the "market" type general governance patterns. Firms in EGVCs are more likely to realize functional upgrading and grow into strong lead firms.

The emerging ASEAN approach to mutual recognition : a comparison with Europe, trans-Tasman, and North America

Existing studies on mutual recognition agreements (MRAs) are mostly based on the European experience. In this paper, we will examine the ongoing attempts to establish a mutual recognition architecture in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and seek to explain the region's unique approach to MRAs, which can be classified as a "hub and spoke" model of mutual recognition. On one hand, ASEAN is attempting to establish a quasi-supranational ASEAN-level mechanism to confer "ASEAN qualification" effective in the entire ASEAN region. On the other hand, ASEAN MRAs respect members' national sovereignty, and it is national authorities, not ASEAN institutions, who have the ultimate power to approve or disapprove the supply of services by ASEAN qualification holders. Such a mixed approach to mutual recognition can be best understood as a centralized mechanism for learning-by-doing, rather than centralized recognition per se.