Abstract

The publication examines the issues of enterprise participation in global value chains. Many economists and international organizations point to the need to involve the industries of developing countries in global value chains, as this leads to positive effects in the form of an inflow of foreign direct investment, the transfer of modern technologies, an improvement in the organization of production, and an increase in the incomes of workers in such enterprises. As a result of the impact of these effects in developing countries, structural shifts are expected in favor of an increase in the share of value added created by high-tech industries. However, studies carried out over the past decade show that positive changes in the economies of developing countries are occurring at an extremely slow pace, and sometimes there is a deterioration in the situation in industry and the economy. In a number of countries, subsidiaries of multinational corporations have undertaken major “internal technology upgrades”, which, however, have seldom affected the rest of the country’s economy in the form of productivity gains for domestic firms, in part because multinational corporations have weak links with local businesses and labor markets. Moving up the chain towards more capital-intensive production or the creation of more added value does not work under these conditions. The goal of international corporations is not to increase the wealth of countries whose production is included in global value chains, but to maintain profitability and flexibility. Sometimes corporations deliberately use global value chains to instill and exacerbate competition between suppliers and countries for their own benefit.