The Digital Transformation of Global Value Chains

Metropolitan and Regional Contexts
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-78925-5
Verlag: Taylor & Francis

Buch, Englisch, 298 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Routledge Advances in Regional Economics, Science and Policy

This book examines how digital technologies and artificial intelligence are fundamentally reshaping global value chains and economic participation. It explores the critical distinctions between three key groups: those who create algorithms, those who apply them in developing new technologies, and those who implement algorithm-driven equipment in manufacturing processes.

A central theme is the role of timing in technological adoption. While cutting-edge algorithms and machines are developed at the innovation frontier, significant time lags occur before these technologies reach widespread application, creating disparities in competitive advantage. The exploitation of digital opportunities concentrates in metropolises and highly developed regions, where robust IT and transportation infrastructure combines with skilled workforces ready for digital transformation. The book analyses how services and software integral to these processes drive industrial change, examining individual industries and service providers while mapping the relationship between technologies, services, and locations at varying stages of innovation and development. Importantly, the book addresses both opportunities and challenges: how regions can improve their positions and identify new development pathways, while acknowledging the risk of exclusion for locations lacking the infrastructure and capabilities found in advanced economies and metropolitan centres.

Drawing on contributions from authors across Europe, North America, and key Asian countries, the book provides comprehensive insights into Global Value Chains and reveals how digital transformation incorporates metropolises and regions in profoundly unequal ways. Making use of both qualitative and quantitative methods, it will be an invaluable resource for scholars, students, researchers and policymakers wishing to understand how to take advantage of new technological opportunities at regional and sectoral levels.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate

Autoren/Hrsg.

Hilpert, Ulrich

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Internationale Wirtschaft Entwicklungsökonomie & Emerging Markets
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Management
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Regional- und Städtische Wirtschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part 1: Introduction 1: The Complexity of Participation in Global Value Chains: Divergent Situations and the Role of Proto-Economic Situations Ulrich Hilpert Part 2: Divergent Impact of Technologies and Industries on Global Value Chains 2: Diversities of modes and speed of adaptation in AI-characterized Value chains Walter Scherrer 3: The impacts of digitisation on supply chain structures and geographies in aerospace Desmond J. Hickie And James D. Hickie 4: India’s Service Sector Driven Integration into Global Value Chains: Through Educated Human Resource Enhancing Opportunities in an Era of Technological Transformations Ruth Kattumuri, Shantanu Singh, K.S. Hari Part 3: Divergent Opportunities of Countries Facing Digital Transformation 5: The diffusion and impact of Industry 4.0 in France: Evidences from the automotive sector Juan Sebastian Carborell & Tommaso Pardi 6: Does digital transformation help Japanese firms reshore manufacturing? Koichiro Okamura 7: Transformation of Industries and Chains: The contribution of Industry 4.0 and digitalization to reorganizing the Chinese industrial system Xiaohui Hu 8: Reshoring in Korea and Role of Digital Technologies Sunyang Chung, Jungmin Roh, and Jongbin Im 9: Industry 4.0 and Digitalization in Thailand: Transformation, Challenges, and Policy  Options Ploy Suebvises, Thanaporn Tengratanaprasert, Chumphol Aunphattanasilp, Ponlapat Buracom  Part 4: Regional and Metropolitan Adoption to Digitally Transformed Chains 10: New Artificial Intelligence Ecosystems in Europe and its integration into Value Chain Óscar Vasquez Rivera, Francesco D. Sandulli, And Jorge Dallego Martinez 11: The role of skilled and educated labour for continued metropolitan development Yasmin Hilpert 12: The role of digitalisation and knowledge flows in shaping new regional specialisations in Italy Francesco Capone, N. Innocenti, S. Oliva, K. Kapo 13: Urban Connectivity and the Impacts of Economic Peripheralization: contexts and considerations Paul M.A. Baker, Helaina Gaspard and Eli Dzik Part 5: Conclusions 14: Divergent situation building and contributions to a transformed global division of labour: The Politicized Structure of Digitalized Global Value Chains Ulrich Hilpert

Über Autor(innen)

Ulrich Hilpert is Full Professor and Chair of Comparative Government in the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.