Greening of Global Value Chains: from a topdown and bottom-up perspective A multiple-case study of how GVC actors are addressing greening of GVCs through reducing CO2 emissions from road transports

Abstract

Previous literature within the GVC research field have mainly focused on economic values, however, recently environmental aspects have increasingly started to be considered. Nevertheless, although road transport is a major cause of CO2 emissions, it has been overlooked in the context of greening GVCs. Therefore, the study aims to enrich this rather underinvestigated field by examining how greening of GVCs is addressed by reducing CO2 emissions from road transports with an emphasis on fossil-free fuels. This is done through a qualitative multiple-case study, taking a dynamic approach by including four lead firms (topdown perspective) and five suppliers (bottom-up perspective). The results show that the lead firms mainly adopt captive governance in relation to road carriers. The requirements set by lead firms can lead to an external drive for suppliers to environmentally upgrade, however, it can also weaken the motivation and inhibit the innovation process of suppliers to develop new fuel solutions. Furthermore, this study found that lead firm characteristics, such as if they operate B2B or B2C, influence the sustainability governance. The prerequisites for suppliers to environmentally upgrade are not only affected by the adopted governance structure by the lead firm, but also the suppliers’ characteristics as strategic intent, capabilities and competencies. In addition to providing a more holistic view to analyze greening of GVCs by taking both a topdown and bottom-up approach, this study also goes one step further in understanding and grasping the importance of the interconnectedness between lead firms and suppliers through inter-firm collaborations.