Sustainable Production Clauses and Positioning in the Global Value Chain: An Analysis of International Investment Agreements (IIA) of the ICT Industry in Developing and Developed Markets

Qi Meng, Muhammad Mohiuddin and Yuliang Cao
Additional contact information
Qi Meng: School of Economics and Management, Zhejiang University of Science and Technology, Hangzhou 310023, China
Muhammad Mohiuddin: Department of Management, Université Laval, Quebec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Yuliang Cao: School of Management, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 4, 1-17

Abstract: Positioning in the global value chain (GVC) reflects the level and kinds of value creation of a firm or industry. The value creation can be on the upstream or downstream of the value chain. This study explores the effects of sustainable production clauses on the economic and physical positioning of information and communication technology (ICT) firms in the global value chain (GVC). We examined 2107 international investment agreements (IIA), signed by 54 countries that represent 70% of the global investment agreements. The empirical results show that the sustainable production intensity clauses in the IIAs have a significant impact on the positioning of ICT’s in the GVC. However, the degree of impact on the economic scale of participation and physical location in the GVC differs. The heterogeneity test shows that the sustainable production intensity clauses of IIAs between developed and developing countries affect positively and significantly the physical and economic locations in the GVCs. This is less significant while the IIAs are signed between the developed markets. These findings demonstrate that countries should consider sustainable production principles and responsible business conducts while signing the IIAs, and ensure their implementation while participating in the GVCs. This process can enhance value creation by moving towards higher value creation activities within the GVC.

Keywords: ICT industry; value chain position; sustainable production intensity; international investment agreements; developed and developing markets (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2396/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/4/2396/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:4:p:2396-:d:753465

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().