ABSTRACT

This article aims to address two research questions. First, what is the relationship between the basic characteristics of companies engaged in global and regional production networks (such as their tier, ownership, size) and their economic performance. In doing so, we scrutinize the empirical basis for frequent calls to ‘climb the ladder’. Second, we investigate the extent to which the economic performance of companies is related to their differing intensity of engagement into production networks, something largely disregarded in existing studies. The study uses economic indicators derived from a database covering the evolution of 55 Czech aerospace companies over a 14-year period. The methodology is based on descriptive statistics as well as on canonical correlation that helps to investigate multidimensional conditioning of economic performance of companies. The results show not only large variations in the economic performance of companies, but also several counter-intuitive trends. Our analysis consistently yielded the statistically significant finding that lead firms and first-tier suppliers are able to sacrifice short-term profitability and level of value added in order to reach a higher level of value capture. Therefore, the difference between value creation and value capture require careful consideration by researchers as well as by policymakers when comprehending the costs and benefits of functional upgrading.

摘要

本文旨在解决两个研究问题。首先，参与全球和区域生产网络的公司的基本特征（如其层级、所有权、规模）与其经济绩效之间的关系是什么。在这样做的过程中，我们仔细检查了频繁呼吁“爬梯子”的经验基础。其次，我们调查了公司的经济绩效与其对生产网络的不同参与强度的相关程度，而现有研究在很大程度上忽略了这一点。该研究使用的经济指标来自一个数据库，该数据库涵盖了 55 家捷克航空航天公司在 14 年期间的演变。该方法基于描述性统计以及规范相关性，有助于调查公司经济绩效的多维条件。结果不仅显示了公司经济表现的巨大差异，而且还显示了一些违反直觉的趋势。我们的分析一致得出具有统计意义的发现，即领先公司和一级供应商能够牺牲短期盈利能力和附加值水平，以达到更高的价值捕获水平。因此，在理解功能升级的成本和收益时，价值创造和价值捕获之间的差异需要研究人员和政策制定者仔细考虑。但也有一些违反直觉的趋势。我们的分析一致得出具有统计意义的发现，即领先公司和一级供应商能够牺牲短期盈利能力和附加值水平，以达到更高的价值捕获水平。因此，在理解功能升级的成本和收益时，价值创造和价值捕获之间的差异需要研究人员和政策制定者仔细考虑。但也有一些违反直觉的趋势。我们的分析一致得出具有统计意义的发现，即领先公司和一级供应商能够牺牲短期盈利能力和附加值水平，以达到更高的价值捕获水平。因此，在理解功能升级的成本和收益时，价值创造和价值捕获之间的差异需要研究人员和政策制定者仔细考虑。