The impact of war and crisis on SMEs' global value chains: A quantitative study in West Sweden

Sammanfattning: Historically global value chains (GVCs) have mainly been operated by transnational corporations (TNCs) but have increased in popularity for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). Recent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the complete Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 have exposed vulnerabilities in GVC. By analysing quantitative data compiled through a survey among SMEs in West Sweden will this study explore the effect wars and crises have on SMEs' organisation of GVC. This study explores possible changes in GVCs to contribute to the contemporary deglobalisation debate. Regionalisation will be used as a tool to analyse possible alternatives to GVC. The study has a cross-sectional research design and will have a deductive approach. Taking a stance in the theory of Widmaier et al. (2007:756- 757) that wars and crises can be “mechanisms of change” within IPE, testing the hypothesis: “Wars and crises have contributed to changes in SMEs’ organisation of GVCs”. This study's central theory is constructivism, particularly the agent-centred constructivism outlined by Widmaier et al. (2007). With the help of these theories, this study concludes that wars and crises affect SMEs and their production organisation, but they have a limited effect. New trends such as automation and sustainability play a vital role in the relocation of production. The data in the study does not indicate any signs of deglobalisation but suggests changing patterns in global production and the rise of regionalisation.