The Digital Transformation of Global Value Chains

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.