Resumo

International trade has become highly segmented along global value chains (GVCs) that now make up for over half of international trade (WORLD BANK, 2019). GVCs involve the extraction and consumption of natural resources at various stages of production, which may lead to resource depletion and ecosystem disruption and in this manner involve the collective management of environmental resources. Governance structures influence the sustainability of GVCs, but there is limited understanding of how exactly these stakeholder interactions within and around GVCs lead to sustainable outcomes.

Governance frameworks have been criticized as too general and not adequately explaining non-chain actors' impacts (BUSH et al., 2015). The objective of this article is to propose a theoretical framework capable of explaining the governance of sustainability-oriented Global Value Chains (GVCs). The proposed framework is a combination of the existing GVCs frameworks and those in the fields of innovation systems, circular economy (CE), and social-ecological systems (SES).

Theoretical analysis of GVCs posits governance as a defining feature of understanding their dynamics, especially considering the tradeoffs that exist between the three pillars of sustainability and importantly, the outcomes beyond the value chain (KRISHNAN; DE MARCHI; PONTE, 2023). Innovation systems theory allows for a better understanding of learning mechanisms and how actors upgrade within GVCs, circular economy principles provide a means for analyzing sustainable innovation in GVCs, and the SES framework for organizing the regional sustainability of a GVC.

This study reviewed major governance theories that focus on natural resource management to identify theories capable of integrating these various components requisite for understanding GVC sustainability taking a modular theory approach. This resulted in the selection of GVC, innovation systems, and SES frameworks. Next, a systematic literature review via the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) method was conducted to analyze the state of the art in GVC literature concerning governance of sustainable GVCs.

The framework involves a series of nested levels beginning with the GVC, the SES in which it is embedded and the international context in which both interact. Analyzing the literature in view of the framework suggests that GVC governance structures influence sustainability upgrades (or downgrades) as they also influence firms’ abilities to capture value. The SES framework provides a means of understanding the regional impacts and feedback mechanisms of ecosystems of the GVC via appropriate indicators, which is essential to understanding sustainability through GVC.

Combining the theoretical GVC, IS, and SES frameworks informed by CE principles can provide a comprehensive means of understanding how sustainability occurs within chains and through chains on a wider regional level. This model offers a better understanding of the relevant ecosystem components and feedback that furnish the ecosystem services upon which actors depend. The framework does not pretend to be a one-size fits all as sustainability challenges are very context specific, this framework aims to provide a theoretical foundation and a flexible means of analyzing any particular GVC.

BUSH, S. R. et al. Sustainability governance of chains and networks: a review and future outlook. Journal of Cleaner Production, v. 107, p. 8–19, nov. 2015. KRISHNAN, A.; DE MARCHI, V.; PONTE, S. Environmental Upgrading and Downgrading in Global Value Chains: A Framework for Analysis. Economic Geography, v. 99, n. 1, p. 25–50, 1 jan. 2023. WORLD BANK (ED.). World development report 2020: trading for development in the age of global value chains. Washington: World Bank Group, 2019.