Global value chains, private governance and multiple end-markets: insights from Kenyan leather

This article analyses how the private governance of global value chains (GVCs) varies across multiple end-markets. This is explored through a two-stage mixed-methods analysis of Kenya's participation in leather value chains serving Europe, China, India and the COMESA region. We first draw on transaction-level customs data to analyse private governance in terms of the stability of buyer-supplier interactions and presence of intermediaries. We then interrogate these results through supplier interviews. Our article highlights the combined role of product specifications and trust in shaping private governance, and heterogeneity of GVCs across the global North and South, as well as within the South. It further questions commonly held assumptions that lower quality products (generally characterising Southern end-markets) are necessarily governed by market-based coordination mechanisms. We therefore challenge links established in the GVC literature between product standards and private governance.

Automated summary

This article examines the variations of private governance in global value chains across different end-markets using a case study of Kenya's participation in leather value chains. It finds that product specifications and trust play crucial roles in shaping private governance, and highlights the heterogeneity of GVCs within and between the global North and South. The study challenges the common assumption that lower quality products in Southern end-markets are necessarily governed by market-based coordination mechanisms.