• Dembinski Paul H.

• Mungall Andrew

The course is divided into five parts:

-a) Part I deals with the enterprise demography to be found in each economy (for example in Switzerland).
-b) The object of Part II is the concept of Value Added.
-c) Part III is related to the process of transnationalisation and fragmentation (of production & distribution activities)
-d) Part IV explores the management aspects of GVC 

-e) Part V deals with regional development issues resulting from GVC

See the homepage www.unifr.ch/sci for further details with respect to the last course.

Moodle Link

The purpose of this course (lecture and seminar) is to introduce the students to the multidisciplinary notion and complex reality of GVC. The concept of “Global Value Chain” captures the intricate competitive or cooperative relationships between enterprises that are involved – directly or indirectly – in a joint production or delivery of a good or service to the final user.

The course aims at analyzing the reality of global value chains starting from end user perspective, so as to determine the value added component stemming from different enterprise and/or regions involved.

The main goals of the course are to:

- help students discover the heterogeneity of enterprise fabric in a country such as Switzerland;
- help to understand the systemic dimension of the globalisation process, its drivers and consequences for enterprises of different sizes;
- gain familiarity with the growing literature on Global Value Chains (GVC) and the different schools of thought in the field
- analyse the strategy and the modes of cooperation between enterprises of different sizes within GVC;
- to confront students with primary information sources and expose them to the difficulty of finding the relevant reliable information.

This course is open to students of any branch who fulfill the conditions of access to Master studies. Selection of participants by the Professor based on the list of enrolments.

GEREFFI, G. Global Value Chains and Development: Refining the Contours of 21st Century Capitalism. Cambridge University Press, 2018.

WORLD BANK. 2020. 2020 World Development Report: Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains. World Bank Group, 2020.

Active participation in the course. Homework: make a presentation in class and the writing up of a paper with respect to a specific topic. See www.unifr.ch/sci for further details - teaching and coursework - Evaluation and work which is carried out during the course and the seminar. The language of assessment is primarily English, exceptionally German or French possible.

Course with continuous evaluation: after the registration period, you can no longer cancel your registration (see session calendar on the Faculty's website).

Oral exam 15 minutes

Re-take exam only