Strategic decoupling, recoupling and global production networks: India’s pharmaceutical industry

Rory Horner

Journal of Economic Geography, 2014, vol. 14, issue 6, 1117-1140

Abstract: Contemporary debates on economic globalization have emphasized the development opportunities for the Global South through local firms becoming integrated into the global commodity chains (GCCs), value chains (GVCs) and production networks (GPNs) governed by leading multinational corporations. With increasing attention to the negative sides of integration, an emergent issue is the role of disengagement from, and operation outside of, the GPNs of lead firms. Through the case of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, where a selective and short-term strategic decoupling and subsequent recoupling has played a crucial role in the development of what is now the largest such industry in the Global South, this article explores how decoupling from GPNs may lead to positive development outcomes. The experience of India and the pharmaceutical industry shows that a sequence of decoupling and recoupling can be an alternative to strategic coupling as a route to economic development.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jeg/lbt022 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

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:oup:jecgeo:v:14:y:2014:i:6:p:1117-1140.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Economic Geography is currently edited by Jorge De la Roca, Stephen Gibbons, Simona Iammarino, Amanda Ross and James Faulconbridge

More articles in Journal of Economic Geography from Oxford University Press Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().