We investigate whether and how digitization may affect the power relationships that constrain the upgrading of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in global value chains (GVCs). Combining GVC literature and Resource Dependency Theory, we examine the three features that shift upgrading constraints: asset-specificity, market disintermediation, and innovation sources. The outcomes of a multiple case study encompassing Brazilian firms intentionally sampled from the Digital Games Industry refine our propositions, leading to the concept of digital power as the potential difference in the power imbalance that a supplier may experience in relation to lead firms when performing similar functions in value chains with different digitization degrees. We contribute to International Business literature regarding the relatively unaddressed effects of digital technologies on power relationships in value chains, and deepen the extant understanding of value chain upgrading as a phenomenon. For practitioners, our results inform ways of benefiting from digital industries.

我们调查了数字化是否以及如何影响限制全球价值链 (GVC) 中中小企业 (SME) 升级的权力关系。结合全球价值链文献和资源依赖理论，我们考察了转变升级约束的三个特征：资产专用性、市场去中介化和创新源。包含有意从数字游戏行业抽样的巴西公司的多个案例研究的结果完善了我们的主张，从而形成了数字力量的概念作为供应商在具有不同数字化程度的价值链中执行类似功能时，与领先公司相关的权力失衡的潜在差异。我们为有关数字技术对价值链中权力关系的相对未解决的影响的国际商业文献做出贡献，并加深了对价值链升级作为一种现象的现有理解。对于从业者而言，我们的结果为从数字行业中受益的方式提供了信息。