Industrialization Trajectories in Madagascar’s Export Apparel Industry: Ownership, Embeddedness, Markets, and Upgrading

SummaryThe paper shows the importance of ownership as a conceptual category within global value chain (GVC) analysis through analyzing firm types based on their GVC linkage, market access, and ownership profile in Madagascar’s apparel export industry. The central argument is that ownership leading to variances in embeddedness matters. Ownership characteristics of supplier firms shape the ability to shift between different end markets, respond to lead firm requirements, and pursue upgrading. With Madagascar’s exclusion from AGOA benefits this has enabled locally embedded European/French diaspora-owned firms and regionally embedded Mauritian-owned firms to shift market channels and upgrade while Asian-owned firms largely exited the industry.