Abstract
Globalization has provided many opportunities for developing countries to integrate the world trade. Upgrading in Global Value Chain (GVC) is the efficient way to increase a country’s international competitiveness. This paper’s aim is to analyze and evaluate the factors that determine firms upgrading in sub-Saharan African countries. Using firm’s data of three sub-Saharan African countries (Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Mauritius) for the year 2009, our analysis shows that the selling price as firms profit indicator, the firms size, the ownership, the level of firms integration, the justice system, the access to finance and the unfair competition of informal sector influence firm’s upgrading decisions.
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Notes
- 1.
United Nations (2013). World Investment Report 2013: Global Value Chains: Investment and Trade for Development, Switzerland.
- 2.
World Economic Forum (2012). The Global Enabling Trade Report 2012: Reducing Supply Chain Barriers, Switzerland.
- 3.
These communities are respectively: the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS); the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS); the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
- 4.
For the export product concentration index, values closer to 1 indicate an economy more dependent on exports of one product.
- 5.
The export diversification index ranges from 1 (largest difference from world average) to 0 (alignment with world average).
- 6.
Data are available at: https://www.enterprisesurveys.org/
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Upgrading by industries (% of firms). Source: Author bases on enterprise surveys
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Kouty, M., Ongono, P.B. (2017). Upgrading in Value Chain: The Case of Sub-Saharan African Countries. In: Seck, D. (eds) Investment and Competitiveness in Africa. Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44787-2_9
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