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Local Dynamics of Industrial Upgrading

The Case of the Pearl River Delta in China

  • Book
  • © 2020

Overview

Authors:
  1. Yi Liu

    1. School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

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  • Offers a fresh perspective on the progress and limitations of industrial upgrading in China’s Pearl River Delta
  • Renews the theory of strategic coupling by reconstructing the typology and showing how strategic coupling leads to various outcomes in connection with industrial upgrading
  • Shows what latecomer firms can do to upgrade after becoming embedded in global production networks

Part of the book series: Economic Geography (ECOGEO)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxv
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 1-18

  3. Unpacking the Geography of Industrial Upgrading

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 19-53

  4. The Interaction Between Strategic Coupling and Industrial Upgrading: A Framework

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 55-79

  5. Industrial Upgrading and Evolutionary Strategic Coupling in the Pearl River Delta

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 81-109

  6. Captive Coupling in the Electronics Industry: Relocation, Localization, and Local Upgrading

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 111-140

  7. Local Upgrading in the Apparel Industry: From Captive Coupling to Cooperative Coupling

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 141-165

  8. Reciprocal Coupling and Industrial Upgrading in the Automotive Industry: The Balance of Interplay

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 167-193

  9. The Geographies of Industrial Upgrading

    • Yi Liu
    Pages 195-211

  10. Back Matter

    Pages 213-222
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Keywords

About this book

This book examines industrial upgrading in China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD), with a specific focus on how strategic coupling impacts industrial upgrading from the perspective of relational economic geography. It shows that firms in the PRD have been struggling after serving as low-tier suppliers and subcontractors for transnational corporations for two decades, since the 1980s opening reform in China. Indigenous innovation and direct state support have fostered the success of a few firms, but not the majority. 


In response, many local firms are now taking advantage of the opportunities to be found in global production networks, which link the PRD with the global economy. This book elaborates on how these opportunities are embedded and identified in global production networks with regard to different types of strategic coupling. It not only renews the theory of strategic coupling in economic geography, but also demonstrates potential strategies that latecomer firms can pursue, and which can have major implications for many developing countries and regions. 


Authors and Affiliations

  • School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Yi Liu

About the author

Yi Liu is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Tourism Management and Planning at the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University, China. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Economic Geography from the National University of Singapore in 2012. His research interests include economic geography and globalization, transnational corporations, global production networks, industrial upgrading and tourism-economic geography. He has published more than 20 academic papers in various high-impact SSCI/SCI journals, including Regional Studies Tourism Management, Urban Geography, and Eurasian Geography and Economics, which have focused on the evolutionary political economy, new developmental models and the trajectories of regional development in China.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Local Dynamics of Industrial Upgrading

  • Book Subtitle: The Case of the Pearl River Delta in China

  • Authors: Yi Liu

  • Series Title: Economic Geography

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4297-8

  • Publisher: Springer Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental Science, Earth and Environmental Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-4296-1Published: 28 April 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-4299-2Published: 29 April 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-4297-8Published: 27 April 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2520-1417

  • Series E-ISSN: 2520-1425

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXV, 222

  • Number of Illustrations: 9 b/w illustrations, 27 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Human Geography, Economic Geography, Regional Development, Globalization

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