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This article seeks to argue that logistics services, and the independent logistics industry in particular, should be afforded much more attention within political economy approaches to the global economy. Widespread outsourcing processes and the increased sophistication of logistics provisions mean that the industry has arguably evolved beyond being a mere service input to occupying an integral and strategic role within many global industries. It is, therefore, intimately connected to debates about shifting governance regimes and upgrading dynamics within those industries. Conceptualising logistics from a global production network (GPN) perspective offers the potential for revealing both (1) the contribution of logistics providers to value and upgrading dynamics in client sectors and (2) the ways in which the logistics industry itself can be thought of as a multi-actor value-generation network with its own strategic and upgrading dynamics. The article distils the key contributions and limitations of prevailing business studies approaches to logistics, before charting a four-pronged research agenda that foregrounds the political economy of logistics provisions within the global economy. The analysis concludes by thinking about the implications of on-going post-crisis restructuring within the world economy for the proposed research agenda on logistics and GPNs. Adapted from the source document.

This article makes three contributions to the local labour market literature. Firstly, it provides an empirical example of the contours and dynamics of a unique local labour market. Secondly, it explores the degree to which the local labour market is shaped by external forces operating at the national and international scale. Thirdly, it considers the extent to which the local labour market can be conceptualized as a multi‐vocal social construct. These ideas are developed through a case study of union involvement in the Vancouver film industry. During the summer of 1997 there was a period of discord between the actors' union in Vancouver, UBCP, and American producers, represented by the AMPTP. These tensions were exacerbated by the involvement of the Provincial Government, the local press and other vested interest groups. Using a variety of interview and documentary evidence, this dispute is used to illustrate the geographically specific and highly complex nature of local labour markets.Cet article réalise trois contributions aux travaux sur le marchré local du travail. Premièrement, il analyse un exemple empirique des contours et des dynamiques d'un marchré unique du travail local. Deuxièmement, l'auteur examine la contribution des forces externes (nationales et internationales) à l'organisation du marchré local du travail. Troisièmement, dans quelle mesure un marchré local du travail peut‐il étre conceptualisré comme une construction sociale à plusieurs discours? Ces points sont drévelopprés dans le cas d'rétude de la participation des syndicats dans l'industrie du film a Vancouver. Pendant l'rétré1997, il y eut une prériode de dissensions entre le syndicat des acteurs à Vancouver (UBCP) et les producteurs amréricains, reprrésentrés par l'AMPTP. Ces tensions rétaient aggravrées par la participation du gouvernement provincial, de la presse locale et d'autres groupes militants. A partir de diverses donnrées provenant d'entrevues et de documentation, ce conflit est utilisré pour illustrer la particularitré gréographique et la nature extrémement complexe des marchés locaux du travail.

Singapore is a key destination for high-technology foreign direct investment in the Asia Pacific, particularly in the areas of disk drives and semiconductors, but increasingly in terms of knowledge-based services. Since the 1980s the government has made strenuous efforts to harness the innovative capacity of foreign transnational corporations through a series of policy initiatives aimed at facilitating a variety of forms of technology transfer to locally owned firms. This paper critically evaluates the impacts of these policy initiatives, and more specifically the Local Industry Upgrading Programme (LIUP), through case studies of the electronics and software sectors. The analysis suggests that supplier upgrading has been limited in the electronics sector, but that horizontal partnership arrangements, as evidenced by the software sector LIUP, may have more beneficial impacts.

AbstractIn this article we seek to move beyond existing conceptualizations of innovation systems in two key respects. First, we identify the need for a shift away from research that focuses on discrete scales as the locus for understanding innovation towards that which places more emphasis on network relationships operating between and across different scales. Second, we illustrate the need for approaches that recognize the significance of innovative networks that extend beyond firms and, in particular, those associated with the movement of knowledgeable individuals. By synthesizing recent insights from three literatures on 'communities' of varying kinds — namely communities of practice, knowledge communities and transnational communities — we propose a conceptualization of transnational innovation networks based around three overlapping and mutually constitutive domains. In addition to the much‐studied 'corporate‐institutional' domain, we also identify 'social network' and 'hegemonic‐discursive' domains that may be important components of transnational innovation networks operating across different localities.