Global value chains, private governance and multiple end-markets: insights from Kenyan leather
通过分析肯尼亚皮革出口至欧洲、中国、印度和东南非共同市场的交易数据与供应商访谈，发现产品规格和信任共同塑造私人治理，且南方终端市场的低质量产品并非必然由市场协调机制治理。
Abstract This article analyses how the private governance of global value chains (GVCs) varies across multiple end-markets. This is explored through a two-stage mixed-methods analysis of Kenya’s participation in leather value chains serving Europe, China, India and the COMESA region. We first draw on transaction-level customs data to analyse private governance in terms of the stability of buyer–supplier interactions and presence of intermediaries. We then interrogate these results through supplier interviews. Our article highlights the combined role of product specifications and trust in shaping private governance, and heterogeneity of GVCs across the global North and South, as well as within the South. It further questions commonly held assumptions that lower quality products (generally characterising Southern end-markets) are necessarily governed by market-based coordination mechanisms. We therefore challenge links established in the GVC literature between product standards and private governance.