Godfrey Yeung

Developing countries could sustain a longer period of economic growth if their firms were able to become embedded within global production networks (GPNs) under a non-captive mode of governance (Gereffi et al., 2005; World Bank, 2020). Transnational corporations (TNCs) and their embedded networks of suppliers on various geographical scales constitute efficient global supply chains and account for 80 percent of global trade (UNCTAD, 2013). The rising political tension between the United States (US) and China and the subsequent trade tariffs and sanctions are highly disruptive for TNCs and their embedded manufacturing suppliers as they rely on just-in-time (JIT) inventories and production to remain cost-competitive (see Bown and Irwin, 2019). The outbreak of COVID-19 and the ongoing war in Ukraine have exposed the fragility of global supply chains to external shocks, and the pandemic arguably has …

Since 2013, the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography awards annual prizes (each of whose authors receive USD 1000—shared in the case of co-authorship) for the best paper by a graduate student (where the lead author is a graduate student) and the best overall paper. Members of the journal’s wider Editorial Board, who independently read papers short-listed by us, the editors, made the final selection of the winning papers. We are pleased to announce the winners (and runners up) of the 2023 awards are:

Despite being a key feature of the globalising world since the 1980s, the patterns and relationships between acquirer and target firms in cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have only gained attention in recent years. By examining the data between 1998 and 2018 through multinomial logistic regression models, this paper investigates the goodness of match on technological intensity (the closeness of technological capabilities) between acquirer and target firms and the effects of geographical, cultural and institutional proximity in global cross‐border M&As in manufacturing sectors. Our results suggest that firms are more likely to acquire overseas counterparts with similar levels of technological intensity in manufacturing. Moreover, geographical proximity is significant in the M&As of target firms in low‐tech and medium‐low‐tech sectors, while cultural and institutional proximity matter for cross‐border M&As …

This paper examines how latecomer firms manage to achieve industrial upgrading through strategic coupling with global lead firms in automotive production networks. Drawing upon the example of the Guangzhou Automotive Corporation in southern China, this paper theorizes ‘cross‐scalar tension’ as a key factor to explain why the four cases of strategic coupling between lead firms, the same domestic firm and state ended in different results, from decoupling to a sustainable coupling with local upgrading. This paper contributes to the pertinent literature by demonstrating that cross‐scalar tension is inherent to the nature of global production networks, and unreconciled tension concerning different corporate strategies on technological transfer, localization and product development could lead to decoupling. Importantly, good coordination and matching on corporate strategies between lead and domestic firms could …

Lead firms play a dominant role in the governance structure of conventional global production network (GPN) analyses but this framework is not fully applicable in sectors where (new) regulations, technologies and subsequent market changes have a disruptive effect on its governance structure. This paper proposes an analytical framework to examine how disruptive effects of industrial megatrends in forms of new regulations and technologies and the subsequent market changes could alter the competitive dynamics between lead firms and their tier-I suppliers. Although lead firms are becoming more specialized and highly efficient in specific product segments, they may not always have inter-firm control over their tier-I suppliers. GPN boundaries become more permeable when there is an external shock, such as new regulations or massive shifts in consumer demand, or the entrance of an entirely new lead firm …

This methodological paper proposes two codifiability indicators to examine trade and manufacturing statistics and the spatial distribution of value-added manufacturing activities. Codifiability is defined as the level of documentation about the manufacturing processes of a product required to allow tasks to be replicated by other suppliers. First, the codifiability indicators allow researchers to examine products that are grouped under the same sub-product class in conventional statistics, but the manufacture of such products could involve vastly different technologies and thus the level of value-added. A proprietary database was used to delineate the supply networks of automakers in passenger vehicles and their major tier-I suppliers between 2000 and 2015. Second, codifiability allowed the researchers to unpack the spatial distribution of value-addedness of each supplier in the production network, as illustrated by the …

We propose an analytical framework to examine how various dimensions of proximity between home and host countries could account for the trajectories and specificities of cross-border acquisitions of technology assets (CATAs) conducted by acquirer firms in latecomer economies. As Chinese firms have been increasingly using CATAs as a mean to catch up with their counterparts in advanced economies, we referred to their acquisition records to illustrate the applicability of the proposed framework. Based on a compiled dataset of the number of CATA transactions from 2001 to 2018, this paper examines the effects of various dimensions of proximity on the spatio-temporal patterns of Chinese CATAs using negative binomial regression models. Our findings demonstrate that the difference in governance between China and host countries (institutional proximity), the size of overseas Chinese population in host …

Based on semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders in Nanhai, this paper adopts an analytical framework to examine how a combination of infrastructure-pull, supply-push and demand-pull initiatives implemented by a small district government in southern China were able to facilitate socio-technical transitions to the public transport decarbonization through the establishment of hydrogen refuelling infrastructures, the adoption of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), and the development of production network on FCEVs. With neither massive investment from the central government nor captive linkage with global automakers, Nanhai out-performs other automotive powerhouses in China by accounting for 9.85 percent of FCEVs and 4.59 percent of all operating hydrogen refuelling stations in China, despite its land area only accounting for 0.01 percent of the country. The provision of hydrogen infrastructures and …

The conventional approach to examining firm-to-firm governance is unable to disentangle the complexity of strategies and the interplay between different actors with their corresponding rules and routines embedded within an institutional environment where the state plays as a key equity partner in joint ventures (JVs) in transitional economies. This paper proposes an analytical framework of hybrid governance to explain how an alignment of mutual interests between three groups of heterogeneous multi-scalar actors (states, local and foreign firms) facilitates technological upgrading in JVs and the establishment of local production networks in transitional economies. The case of Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) demonstrates how the divergent interests of various actors do not necessarily constrain the development of the JV. Under such hybrid governance, whereby the boundaries between public and private …

Inter-regional capital flow is one of the critical factors affecting economic growth and regional inequality. This paper examines the impact of inter-regional investment from publicly listed companies on green total factor productivity (GTFP) in 215 cities and their green innovation mechanism between 2008 and 2018 in China. To address the endogeneity of inter-regional investment and GTFP, we adopted the opening of high-speed rail as the instrumental variable in the form of regression discontinuity design (RDD) and two-stage least squares (2SLS) estimates. Validated by five robustness and validity tests, our empirical results show that inter-regional investment significantly enhanced the local GTFP in the host cities. Moreover, the mechanism analysis shows that green patents had a significant mediating effect between inter-regional investment and local GTFP in the host cities. Specifically, green invention patents …

Through a comprehensive review of economic geography studies on Asian international financial centers (IFCs) published from 2009, this paper aims to provide a sympathetic critique of the key research trajectories of financial geographies and to outline research gaps where economic geographers could contribute to the relevant literature. Economic geographers have identified a prominent change in the geographies of the international finance industry, with the rapid development and the emergence of inter-city networks among Asian IFCs, and suggested how the emerging FinTech industries could reshape the competitive dynamics and thus the financial landscape of IFCs. The literature has unpacked the general mechanisms of how Asian IFCs grow and evolve as well as their spatial patterns but has neglected the macro political-economic contexts that drive the development dynamics of Asian IFCs. To maintain the long-term prospects of financial geography, we call for efforts to theorize (Asian-based) financial geographies and develop the corresponding analytical frameworks with rigorous quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the development trajectories of Asian IFCs and their socio-political and geo-economical mechanisms. Moreover, economic geographers could develop a set of composite parameters to capture the attributes and structures that could (re) shape the development trajectories of inter-city and intra-city financial networks and their level of resilience to external shocks.

This timely Research Agenda provides a state-of-the-art review of existing research on manufacturing, as well as highlighting key areas of study to advance the field. Expert contributors from across the globe analyse the central role of manufacturing industries in the global economy, considering it as a multi-scalar process and assessing the impact of climate change in necessitating the decarbonization of production processes.

The post-1997 massive inflow of capital led to a call to resist the Sinicisation of Hong Kong’s economy, while pragmatic advocators called for a pro-active leadership role for Hong Kong under the national initiative of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) – the Hongkongnisation of southern China. Instead of focusing on the form of the institution, as in the dominant academic discourses, we argue that the credibility and sustainability of the financial market in Hong Kong is determined by the specific functions that it can perform for the Chinese economy under the constraints of ‘One Country, Two Systems’ (OCTS).

Manufacturing matters and will always matter. The COVID-19 pandemic is associated with the rapid acceleration of innovation and with enhanced digitalization of production systems and consumer behaviour (Bryson et al., 2020). The shift towards online shopping and online living that was associated with the COVID-19 pandemic produced alterations in consumer behaviour and some of these may be permanent. Companies had to cope with supply chain disruptions, alterations in working practices with the imposition of social distancing in the workplace, combined with alterations and disruptions in consumer demand. Some of these alterations in working practices will become permanent as companies alter the balance between working from home and working in company offices. Thus, in March 2021, BP announced that it would be introducing a new hybrid work model for office-based employees who would be …

A growing body of literature in evolutionary economic geography (EEG) and global production networks (GPN) have pointed out the role of institutions in addressing questions of subnational regional path creation and uneven development. Through a synthesis of the EEG and GPN approaches, this paper proposes a framework to highlight the roles and functions performed by state-linked actors in the diversification and path creation. The trajectory of mid-stream oil-related development in Singapore and the wider Straits region since 1959 was used to illustrate how the state implements its industrial strategies and policies through different forms of state and state-linked actors over time, which in turn generates a symbiotic state-business relation for related diversification and subsequent coupling-recoupling-decoupling and path creation dynamics. Specifically, the establishment of oil-related business in Singapore (a …

Since 2013, the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography awards annual prizes (each of whose authors receive USD 1000—shared in the case of co-authorship) for the best paper by a graduate student (where the lead author is a graduate student) and the best overall paper. Selection of the winning papers is made by members of the journal’s Editorial Board. We are pleased to announce the winners (and runners up) of the 2021 awards are:

To contribute to the debate on the importance of state vis-à-vis inter-firm competition in regional development, this paper examines a representative dataset of the relocation of manufacturing firms in Guangdong province of China with multinomial logistic regression models. To improve the competitiveness of manufacturing in the Pearl River Delta, the Guangdong government implemented pro-active policies to encourage the relocation of existing manufacturing firms to their designated industrial parks during the 2000s. Although the initial results appear to support the usefulness of relocation policy, further examination reveals its effectiveness depends on the industrial sector and profiles of the relocated firms. In fact, the relocation of large-scale labor-intensive firms is not driven by local government initiatives. The physical proximity of high-technology parks to airports/ports has a bigger impact on the relocation of …

Through an examination of output efficiency of urban land use and its driving mechanisms, this paper aims to highlight the roles of inherent differences in development cycle and resource endowment and the need for a targeted revitalization policy in resource-based cities in China. Based on the Slack-Based Model-Undesirable through the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the Tobit model on panel data at the municipal level between 2000 and 2018, our analytical framework addresses the methodological concern of existing studies on the estimate of urban land use efficiency (ULUE) and its possible determining factors for 115 resource-based cities in China. Examination through the Tobit model suggests that it is more effective for the local governments of resource-based cities to improve their ULUE by investing in road networks and science and technology. The organic growth of urban land leads to rapid …

Annually since 2002, the I Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography i has sponsored a lecture at an international conference. In this first issue of 2021, we are pleased to publish the 2019 I SJTG i lecture on" GIS research to address tensions in geography"(Yuan, 2021a), based on an April 2019 plenary presentation at the American Association of Geographers Annual Meeting held in Washington, DC. As noted in prior Editorials (Bunnell & Lu, 2016; Lu & Bunnell, 2018) the I SJTG i is equally receptive to physical and human geography, as well as to papers that span these fields.[Extracted from the article]Copyright of Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract …

After the initial public offerings of state-owned commercial banks (SOCBs) in 2005–2010, the transformation of the property structure blurred the conventional boundaries between public and private property in China while the state continued to play an important role in the regulation and operation of this ‘hybrid property’: the mixed public-private ownership structure adopted for previously wholly SOCBs. It is could be that the perceived lending bias against private enterprises was a rational decision made by SOCBs in China, partly due to the high transaction costs of risk evaluation and the lack of any formal channels to mitigate the credit risks of such loans. The hybrid nature of SOCBs property rights makes them a credible and convenient channel for the state to provide counter-cyclical lending to contain any exogenous (economic) shocks that might occur as well as long-term financial support for development …

The outbreak of Covid-19 leading to the lock-down in Wuhan on January 23, 2020 and the subsequent pandemic had significant impacts on the Chinese economy. China’s policy response regarding the banking system has helped to mitigate the devastating impacts of pandemic on the Chinese economy. Before we review the measures implemented by the Chinese government, it is important for us to give a brief overview of the roles of two major group of actors (institutions) in the banking system. In China, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) is the central bank. It is responsible for formulating and implementing monetary policy (including setting minimum reserve requirements and interest rates, and money supply and exchange rate targets) to ensure the stability of the financial system (Yeung et al. 2017). There are numerous financial institutions but the key banks in terms of equity and market share are five state-owned commercial banks (SOCBs): the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC); Bank of China (BOC); China Construction Bank (CCB); Agricultural Bank of China (ABC); and the Bank of Communications (BOCOM). The state is the largest equity owner, although all SOCBs have been listed in the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong between 2005 and 2010 and function like private commercial banks elsewhere, especially in their daily operations at the local/branch level. What makes the SOCBs different is that the PBoC can issue administrative directives on SOCB lending due to the nature of its hybrid ownership structure (Yeung forthcoming). Importantly, the most senior executives at the SOCBs are appointed by the central …

Based on panel data for 113 municipal cities between 2000 and 2017, we examined the spatial-temporal patterns of the output efficiency of logistics land use and its possible determinant factors in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YEB) of China. The stochastic frontier analysis revealed that the average annual value of logistics land use efficiency (LLUE) in the YEB increased from 0.547 in 2000 to 0.655 in 2017. The Tobit model revealed that all the explanatory variables had positive and significant relationship with the LLUE, with the exception of the tertiary sector and informatization. Importantly, Tobit models of three sub-samples revealed various development stages in the logistics industry across space: downstream cities may reach the plateau of LLUE through organic growth, while an increase in the land supply for logistics use could still be associated with an improvement of the LLUE of a logistics industry …

This issue of the I Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography i (SJTG) sees some adjustments to the Editorial team. Tim Bunnell, who has served as co-editor with Xi Xi Lu since January 2012 is stepping down from the role, though will remain a member of our Editorial Board. While much recent scholarly attention has focused on land-based frontier change-with significant focus on land grabs and boom crop production... our paper has examined similar manifestations in coastal frontiers.[Extracted from the article]Copyright of Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to …

This article starts with a definition of ports as gateways with facilities for receiving and transferring passengers and cargo between water and land transport and emphasizes the role in port and industrial zones of a set of interrelated industrial activities. Emphasis is also placed on the role of ports as steps in commodity or value chains and as vital elements of logistic systems. Attention is then paid to investment in port facilities and competition among ports to control their hinterlands and serve market areas and to the impact of shifts in the center of gravity of economic activities on the evolution of the global ports system. The next section deals with the development in the 1960s and 1970s of Maritime Industrial Development Areas and their relationship to the restructuring of industries producing intermediate goods, of maritime transport and seaport systems (including the growth of containerization), and the active …