Strategic upgrading of subordinate firms in global value chains: Example of French Ardennes livestock breeders investing in biogas units

Les « upgradings stratégiques » des firmes subordonnées dans les CGV: le cas des éleveurs investissant dans des unités de méthanisation

Alexandre Berthe, Pascal Grouiez and Louis Dupuy

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Abstract: "This article considers the analysis of upgrading strategies, focusing at the level of subordinate firms themselves, with a more classical study at the GVC level. This approach develops the concept of "strategic upgrading," studies the institutional environment of subordinate firms, and draws on concepts from industrial economics, such as differentiation, diversification, and specialization, in order to understand these firms' strategies. It thus reexamines the category of inter-chain upgrading, i.e., the improvement of the position of actors of a GVC by integrating a new GVC. We confront this proposal with a territorialized case study on the development of biogas production by farmers in the Ardennes. We observe that these farmers are part of the emerging GVC of biomass energy based on their experience as "captive" actors in the agro-industrial GVC. In particular, they have sized their biogas production units to be autonomous regarding agro-industry. This new activity also has feedback effects on their positioning in the agro-industrial GVC.JEL classification: L22, L23, Q13, Q16, Q42.

Keywords: biogas production; biomass; agro-industrial firms; global value chain (GVC); agriculture; subordinate firms’ strategies; strategic upgrading; interchain upgrading; joint products; biomasse-énergie; METHA’REVENUS; produits-joints; méthanisation; firmes agro-industrielles; stratégies de firmes subordonnées; chaîne globale de valeur (CGV); upgrading stratégique; upgrading inter-chaîne (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Published in Revue d'économie industrielle , 2018, ⟨10.4000/rei.7414⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02272927

DOI: 10.4000/rei.7414

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