Catching Up Along the Global Value Chains
A RESEARCH PROGRAM COORDINATED BY BOCCONI'S ICRIOS AND FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION KICKED OFF LAST FRIDAYCatChain, a 48-month research project led by Bocconi University’s ICRIOS center and funded by the European Commission’ Marie SkÅ‚odowska Curie Actions program with €1.6 mln, had the kick-off meeting last Friday in Brussels.
CatChain stands for «Catching–Up along the Global Value Chain: models, determinants and policy implications in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution». The ICRIOS research center coordinates 12 international partners based in Europe (Greece, the Netherlands, twice Estonia, France and Spain) and in developing countries (India, Brazil, Costa Rica, Malaysia, South Africa, Republic of Korea) to investigate how to promote catch-up processes at country level, based on different sectoral perspectives.
«The outcome of the project will be the definition of policy tools and frameworks to support effective policy-making actions in the implementation of research and innovation regarding smart specialization strategies, with respect to the new agenda of Europe 2020 and mainly for low-income EU countries», says Prof. Franco Malerba, coordinator of the program.
The program aims to give solid scientific answers to the question of whether entering global value chains either by sponsoring one large national firm or a set of small and dynamic enterprises, with a special focus on the challenges faced by small and medium enterprises. The project bridges different threads of research, since it considers the catching-up framework, the global value chains literature and the role of business models in addition to topics related to entry, learning and upgrading strategies in fostering a process of country-level catching-up in distinct sectors.
by Fabio Todesco
