Global decisions versus local realities: Sustainability standards, priorities and upgrading dynamics in agricultural global production networks

Abstract

Voluntary sustainability standards (VSSs) in global production networks (GPNs) have grown significantly in prominence. Existing research largely assumed that VSSs create linear upgrading outcomes for all GPN actors and has studied VSSs from the point of adoption in the GPNs, rather than a broader range of stages in their lifecycle. To address these limitations, and building on literature around power and agency in GPNs, we develop the constellation of priorities (CoP) model to unpack the diverse and often diverging boardroom (Northern lead firm) and local (Southern supplier) priorities involved in such standards. Through in‐depth fieldwork on horticulture in Kenya and cocoa in Nicaragua across the VSS lifecycle, we find significant divergences in priorities between farmer groups in both countries and lead firms in the UK and Germany. We demonstrate analytically and empirically that diverging priorities coupled with power asymmetries produced contestations, leading to simultaneous economic and environmental downgrading, and social upgrading.

More than floods and droughts: Understanding emergent water risks in South African fruit production networks

“…Through the concept of environmental risk, GPN 2.0 (Coe & Yeung, 2015) provides an interesting opening to centre the environment within its analysis. This is in line with a growing engagement with the environmental dimension in wider GPN/GVC literature, for example, environmental upgrading (e.g., De Marchi et al, 2013) or voluntary sustainability standards (Krauss & Krishnan, 2021). This work remains predominantly ‘vertical,’ investigating modes of inter‐firm governance, for example, how stakeholders along the value chain environmentally upgrade or downgrade.…”

TD 2844 - Normas voluntárias de sustentabilidade no comércio internacional : aspectos teóricos, metodológicos e conceituais

“…A assimetria de informação ocorre quando os consumidores não têm acesso às características dos produtos ex ante e ex post, tal qual os atributos relacionados aos processos produtivos que incorrem em custos ambientais e sociais, como a produção em áreas desmatadas, o bem-estar animal e o uso de mão de obra infantil (Gaigné e Larue, 2016;Krauss e Krishnan, 2022). A assimetria de informação entre consumidores e produtores pode impedir o bom funcionamento dos mercados e, na pior das hipóteses, levar a falhas de mercado.…”

The link between economic and social upgrading in global supply chains: Experiences from the Southern Cone

“…Some authors have criticized the economic and social upgrading terminology as being "lead firm centred", without adequately reflecting the perspective of local firms and workers at lower tiers in the supply chain with regard to the upgrading process (Krauss and Krishnan, 2016), which underscores the importance of examining impacts on different segments within supply chains. The concept of social upgrading, in particular, has received criticism for not taking adequate account of workers' agency in promoting their organization and representation, and of the constraints to worker mobilization in contexts where the trade union movement is weak, under-represented or repressed (Selwyn, 2013).…”