The supply chains of the mobile phone industry span national and firm boundaries. To analyze how value is distributed among the participants, a framework based on theories of firm strategy is applied, and a novel methodology is used to measure value capture in three phone models introduced from...

Investment in information technology (IT) is an important driver of economic growth and productivity in the United States and other developed countries, but as yet it is not shown to be a significant driver in developing countries. Previous research suggests that IT investment and complementary...

This research asks who captures the greatest value in the global electronics industry by testing the concept of the “smiling curve”, which predicts that the greatest value is captured by upstream and downstream firms, and the lowest value is captured in the middle of the value chain. We test...

In an era when new ideas are brought to the market by global value networks of specialists rather than by one company, a key question is who captures the most value from innovation in such a structure, and why? This paper addresses the question of who benefits from innovation in global value...

In today’s global electronics industry, innovation is carried out by various value chain participants, including brand-name manufacturers (sometimes called lead firms), contract manufacturers, and component suppliers, but there is little understanding of who benefits most from innovation in...

This article analyzes the distribution of financial value from innovation in the global supply chains of iPods and notebook computers. We find that Apple has captured a great deal of value from the innovation embodied in the iPod, while notebook makers capture a more modest share of the value...