State-owned actors increasingly operate in global production networks (GPNs), yet host-state agency in strategic coupling remains underexamined. This paper develops an analytical framework to explain how strategic coupling unfolds between host states and foreign state-owned companies by integrating three dynamics: host states' bargaining conditions via enabling, managing and embedding mechanisms, state-capital hybrids' alignment strategies, and geopolitical proximity as an enabling condition. Drawing on a case study of Singaporean state-owned energy service providers in Vietnam's renewables sector, we show how Vietnam shapes bargaining conditions balancing investment needs with sovereignty concerns, how Singaporean actors align with these conditions, and how multi-scalar geopolitical proximity facilitates strategic coupling. The paper advances GPN and state capitalism literature in three ways: (1) by foregrounding host-state strategies beyond firm-centric accounts; (2) by specifying foreign state-capital hybrids' alignment strategies; (3) by introducing geopolitical proximity as a distinct multi-scalar relational condition amid rising geo-economic tensions.
While existing studies have primarily examined the firm-level drivers and outcomes of digital transformation, little attention has been paid to its regional implications for participation in global value chains (GVCs). Drawing on a large, multi-source matched dataset, this study investigates the influential mechanisms of digital transformation on local participation in GVCs across different regional contexts. It finds that digital transformation has exerted a significantly positive influence on local participation in GVCs, which is moderated by both institutional legitimacy and social legitimacy. This paper emphasises the importance of industrial heterogeneity and legitimacy in understanding digital transformation.
For over six decades, the World Bank has been a pivotal actor in Ghana's development, yet the evolution of its role in shaping the country's resilient development agenda remains underexplored. This paper argues that resilience, while only explicitly adopted in the World Bank's report following the 2015 Accra floods, has been an implicit and enduring development objective of its interventions in Ghana since the postcolonial era. Tracing the Bank's portfolios from 1960 to 2023, we demonstrate a significant evolution in its approach: from a focus on economic resilience through large-scale ecological infrastructures like the Akosombo Dam in the 1960s to 1970s; to an emphasis on resilient social systems and governance during the Structural Adjustment era of the 1980s to 1990s; and finally to the current paradigm of integrated resilient development, exemplified by city-wide flood-mitigation projects in Greater Accra. Our findings reveal that this shift represents not a series of disjointed interventions but a coherent, though changing, application of resilience thinking, where the 'subjects' and 'objects' of resilience have expanded from the national state to encompass entire urban socio-ecological systems. However, the paper concludes that this prevailing integrated model, driven by large-scale infrastructure and complex donor tools like the City Strength Diagnostic, tends to centralise authority and predetermine resilience pathways, often overlooking alternative community-driven forms of 'resilience from below'. On this basis, the study highlights the need to govern the multi-scalar processes of resilience building itself, ensuring that the pursuit of resilience also fosters equitable and inclusive governance.
This article examines the development of a smart city in Pariaman, a small city in Indonesia, a country in the Global South. Understanding smart city initiatives in the Global South is crucial, as existing literature predominantly focuses on the Global North, despite significant socioeconomic and cultural differences between the two. Using a qualitative approach, this study draws on both secondary data and interviews with seven senior officials responsible for Pariaman's smart city development. The findings reveal that local cultural, religious and social realities, particularly Islam and Minangkabau values, shape smart city development in Pariaman City and guide policy through a logic of appropriateness. Across culture, metabolism and governance, the smart city development exhibits provincialising tendencies, rather than achieving the broader goals of sustainability, inclusivity and convenience often emphasised in the Global North's smart city models. Additionally, the findings reveal a persistent tension between ambition and digital capacity. As a result, Pariaman City risks becoming a symbolic smart city, one that adopts digital initiatives to signal modernity despite limited implementation and digital capacity.
Research on creative city branding has expanded in recent years, yet the mechanisms through which organisational structure (OS) shapes branding outcomes - particularly alongside networking and financial support - remain insufficiently examined. Most studies focus on developed regions and present creative city frameworks without considering institutional constraints and socio-cultural specificities in developing settings. Adopting a critical perspective, this study investigates how OS, financial support (FS) and networking and participation (NP) influence creative city branding (CCB) and evaluates how CCB contributes to city brand effectiveness (CBE). Rasht, a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, serves as the case. Structural equation modelling shows that OS strongly affects CCB directly and indirectly, primarily through NP. FS plays no meaningful mediating role, reflecting the limited functionality of financial mechanisms under centralised and inflexible governance. CCB enhances CBE, strengthening urban identity and cultural visibility. The findings underscore the importance of integrated organisational arrangements and participatory structures in cities where financial resources and institutional flexibility are constrained. The proposed framework provides context-sensitive insights for developing governance environments and supports policymakers in designing more adaptive and grounded creative city strategies.
Using data from 49 nations and territories from 2007-2021, drawn from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Multi-Regional Input-Output (ADB-MRIO) database, this study employs quantile regression to examine variables shaping participation in the global value chain (GVC), considering both backward and forward linkages for a comprehensive assessment. It explores how economic, political and social factors relate to GVC participation across different quantiles and development stages. Results indicate that the magnitude and direction of these relationships vary across participation levels. Gross domestic product (GDP) and population size are negatively associated with GVC participation, suggesting larger economies may focus more on domestic markets. Political stability and government integrity also show negative correlations, challenging assumptions that stable governance necessarily fosters global integration. In contrast, government spending positively correlates with GVC participation, highlighting the role of public investment in supporting global production linkages. Higher tax burdens and export taxes reduce GVC engagement, consistent with fiscal policy theory. These findings emphasise the importance of tailored, context-specific strategies to enhance GVC participation and optimise integration into global production networks.
This paper explores how regional development is influenced by global production networks via the process of strategic coupling. It theorises the role of strategic coupling in shaping regional development, with a specific focus on the development of regional innovation systems and regional economic resilience. Building on this theoretical framework, quantitative-based regression methods are applied to measure the effectiveness of this mechanism through the case of the Guangdong Province in Southern China. Findings highlight dual effects in an Asian context that: regions with high bargaining power and autonomous coupling with global production networks (GPNs) may initially reduce the resilience, but they significantly boost the innovation system that would foster long-term resilience. Conversely, low bargaining power regions with less autonomous coupling experience short-term resilience gains but suffer from suppressed the innovation system, ultimately weakening long-term resilience. This study contributes by integrating relational economic geography's (REG's) strategic coupling with evolutionary economic geography's (EEG's) regional evolution framework, enhancing theoretical insights, and innovating methods to quantify strategic coupling and its regional impacts. It echoes the call of theorising back by developing new theories based on remaking Asian economies.
Development constitutes political, legal, social and economic experiences larger than the expression itself. We argue that development serves as an agenda for luring the general populace to dominant notions such as nation-building, growth, progress and game-changer events in national trajectories. In this way, development is a schema of regulating and (re)shaping 'conduct of conduct' to channel it in a certain direction. Our aim in this article is to understand the intricacies of the Pakistani state as a development actor that converges on the international development and control of the populace through its development projects - mainly large-scale infrastructural projects such as roads, dams, cities, hospitals and highways. This research is based on one such project called the Sahiwal Coal Power Project. We have collected data through participant observation, interviews, critical appraisal of policy documents and official promotions on national and international media. Such a careful assessment of the relevant literature has led to critical discourse analysis revealing the intricate relationships among securitised development, popular politics and the authoritarian state. We find that the Sahiwal Coal Power Project serves as an opportunity for different social actors and state institutions to capitalise on their hegemony and power at the cost of villagers who have experienced the might of the Pakistani state through securitised development, authoritarianism and populist politics aimed at controlling and shaping the society.
The Green Revolution transformed India's agricultural landscape, enhancing productivity and rural living standards, particularly in Punjab and Haryana. Larger landowners and capitalist farmers benefited disproportionately from agricultural modernisation, while smallholders and landless labourers faced marginalisation. This shift fostered new agrarian classes, including commission agents and rural elites, who exploited market opportunities arising from the commercialisation of agricultural technologies. The adoption of high-yielding variety seeds primarily by wealthier farmers further exacerbated class differentiation. Liberalisation policies encouraged capitalist diversification into seed production, particularly after the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Act of 2001, which allowed private entities to enter the seed market. This study explores the commercialisation of crop seeds in Punjab and Haryana, examining operational scales, landholdings, and class dynamics in wheat and rice production through survey of 49 seed producers and 128 growers. The findings reveal the persistence of strong class relationships despite market challenges, highlighting the interconnectedness of roles in seed production. The analysis emphasises that seed production is largely controlled by medium and large landholders, perpetuating existing inequalities. Additionally, the role of intermediaries, particularly arthiyas, significantly influences economic returns for seed growers, with direct transactions yielding higher profits than those involving middlemen. This study aims to illuminate the complexities of class dynamics in India's seed production sector, providing insights to inform equitable agricultural policies that support innovation and inclusivity for all stakeholders in crop seed production.
The rise of the digital economy has reshaped urban competition, with digital entrepreneurship now at the core of this competition. Yet this phenomenon remains under-theorised and spatially blind. To address this gap, digital entrepreneurs (DEs) - defined as those whose core value-creation activities are carried out in the digital realm and are only made possible through digital technologies - are examined using Douyin vloggers as a representative case. Based on vlogger data from Chinese cities in 2023, fixed effects models are employed for empirical analysis, accompanied by a series of robustness checks. Findings reveal a positive correlation between the number of vloggers in a city and geographical factors such as the mobile phone user base, talent power and the presence of preferential digital-economy policies. Conversely, a negative correlation is observed with per capita gross domestic product. Moreover, divergent agglomeration logics are uncovered among DEs: less influential vloggers tend to be driven by necessity and infrastructure access, whereas highly influential vloggers cluster in technologically advanced cities with high-end urban amenities.
Achieving the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals requires a comprehensive reassessment of the structural constraints and opportunities shaping resilient, inclusive and sustainable regional development. Yet despite sustained policy efforts across Sub-Saharan Africa, development outcomes remain highly uneven, undermined by persistent macroeconomic instability, weak governance structures, insecurity, climate vulnerability and recurrent public health crises. Against this backdrop, this study rigorously evaluates the convergence hypothesis alongside macro-regional drivers of growth and spatial inequality across the region. The results reveal positive and statistically significant coefficients across three distinct convergence clubs, indicating not convergence but sustained regional divergence in growth trajectories. Moreover, the analysis uncovers strong spatial dependence and significant spillover effects linked to geographical proximity and macro-regional dynamics, underscoring the inherently interconnected nature of regional development processes. By applying advanced spatial methodologies, this research addresses critical gaps in the empirical literature and offers a more nuanced understanding of growth dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Beyond its academic contribution, the study provides a robust, evidence-based framework for policymakers, highlighting the necessity of coordinated, multidimensional strategies to achieve sustainable and equitable regional development.
Global photovoltaic (PV) trade has undergone profound restructuring under the low-carbon transition, but the evolution of its industrial chain competition remains underexplored. This paper analyses the evolution of the global PV product trade network from 2000 to 2021, revealing structural shifts and differentiated competition across the industrial chain. Utilising a Tobit regression model, we identify the key determinants that shape the competitive dynamics. The results show that: (1) the PV trade network has grown increasingly complex, with the midstream segment showing strong 'small-world' characteristics - the trade network displays a distinct core-periphery pattern, with China shifting from the periphery to the core; (2) multilayer network analysis indicates that PV competition is predominantly intra-layer and highly concentrated, with over 80% of global PV trade competition embedded in merely 10% of the relationships; (3) global PV competition is segmented, with advanced economies maintaining dominance in the upstream through technology and equipment, while China and other emerging economies leverage scale and innovation to gain ground in the midstream and downstream; and (4) the regression results indicate that upstream competition is driven by resource endowments and innovation capacity, midstream competition is shaped by cost structures and energy similarities, while downstream competition is influenced by heterogeneous economic conditions and varying decarbonisation needs. These insights advance understanding of the competitive dynamics in green global value chains and provide valuable evidence to inform coordinated international strategies in the low-carbon transition.
Monitoring and evaluation (M&E) tools are key to the development of agricultural innovation systems (AIS). However, their implementation at the regional level remains a challenge in emergent economies with limited policy capacity. This study interrogates what are the key conditions that define the design, implementation and scaling up of M&E systems for regional agricultural innovation. Following a participatory action research (PAR) approach, we set up a pilot in the Casanare region (Colombia), on the development of regional agricultural innovation M&E indicators. Results show how operational, methodological and systemic conditions for the scaling up of regional M&E are impacted by broader features of policy capacity. By discussing a possible relational view on policy capacity, this research adds to the growing literature on AIS, with a special focus on M&E, regional innovation policies and practices. It draws attention to challenges related to emerging pathways and interactions between epistemically diverse actors.
This article examines why Iran, despite reducing its dependence on a single export commodity, remains locked into a pattern of 'wrong diversification' - dominated by energy-intensive, rent-based industries rather than capability accumulation and technological upgrading. Using a process-tracing approach that integrates statistical indicators, policy documents and 30 semi-structured interviews with policymakers, managers and experts, the study shows that while export variety has expanded, concentration has deepened and the economic complexity index remains negative, with over half of industrial value added in petrochemicals, steel and non-metallic minerals. Four interrelated dimensions explain this paradox: (i) discourses of self-sufficiency and anti-raw exports that narrowed policy horizons; (ii) fiscal and energy dependence reinforcing rent-intensive sectors; (iii) unstable and discretionary industrial support reproducing institutional inertia; and (iv) sanctions and low foreign direct investment (FDI) restricting integration into global value chains. Situated within the resource-curse, deals-and-development, and path-dependence frameworks, the study conceptualises Iran's trajectory as a case of 'wrong diversification', where variety without complexity, institutional discipline and global learning perpetuates stagnation. Policy implications highlight the need for performance-based support, macroeconomic stability and international technological linkages.
This research argues that the historical trajectories of city-regions shape patterns of outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) by influencing city-level ownership advantages. Drawing on Dunning's ownership-location-internalisation (OLI) paradigm and an evolutionary economic geography perspective, we examine how these dynamics unfold in two major Chinese cities - Shanghai and Shenzhen. Our analysis shows that city-level attributes - industrial structure, institutional contexts, and technological and knowledge bases - determine ownership advantages. These advantages, in turn, affect OFDI choices about host economies, target sectors, and motives of internationalisation.
Sunyani is one of the fastest-growing urban areas in Ghana. Presently, the city is experiencing rapid growth that tests the balance between formal land governance and informal settlement practices. Sunyani's informal land use arrangements shape the operations of the informal economy, yet they remain underexplored in governance frameworks. Using a qualitative case study approach, this research draws on data from 157 informal businesses and in-depth interviews with five knowledge-rich stakeholders, including municipal officials and trade union leaders. Findings reveal that customary land authorities and informal land markets play a pivotal role in urban expansion, often compensating for gaps in formal land administration. Most informal businesses operate in spaces acquired through informal arrangements, with limited awareness of land governance structures that regulate their activities. The study finds that informal arrangements both complement and challenge formal systems, leading to hybrid land governance outcomes. It recommends policy interventions, such as designated trading zones, participatory urban planning and flexible regulatory frameworks, to bridge the historical divide between the formal and informal sectors.
This paper critically examines the emerging discourse on technofeudalism. While mainstream narratives celebrate technological advancement driven by American tech giants, proponents of the technofeudalism thesis argue that a new ruling class - 'cloudalists' - has supplanted traditional capitalists, extracting data and rent in ways reminiscent of feudal relations. However, this discourse fails to account for the ongoing dynamism of capitalist investment and competition. In contrast, this paper advances the concept of rentier capitalism by revisiting Marx's analysis in Capital, with particular attention to his often-overlooked theory of ground rent in Volume III. Drawing on Marx's notebooks published for the first time in the Marx-Engels-Gesamtausgabe (MEGA), the paper argues that rentier capitalism constitutes the most advanced and contradictory form of contemporary capitalism, which accelerates the destruction of the common and undermines the conditions necessary for working-class solidarity. As the dual crisis of capital accumulation and anti-systemic movements intensifies socio-economic and political instability, the threat of an authoritarian turn towards technofascism becomes increasingly imminent.
