The global network of firms, institutions, and other economic agents which shapes and is shaped by the fundamental processes of knowledge and wealth creation, enhancement, and exploitation; corporate, collective, and institutional elements of organizational power; and, spatial and network embeddedness (Henderson et al. (2002) Rev. Int. Polit. Econ. 9, 3). ‘As manufactured products are becoming more technologically sophisticated, their production has often involved an increasing number of stages. These production stages can be decoupled and farmed out to a network of geographically dispersed locations to take advantage of lower costs…International trade then entails flows of goods belonging to a single industry but at different stages of production. This cross-border multi-staged production process has been facilitated immensely by major improvements in transportation, coordination and communication technologies, and the liberalisation of trade and investment regimes’ (G. Nandan (2006) Commonwealth of Australia).

Hesse (2006) Growth & Change 37, 4 relates the ‘somehow abstract system dynamics of GPNs’ to very particular places, while Coe et al. (2004) TIBG 29, 4 highlight the dynamic ‘strategic coupling’ of global production networks and regional assets. See also Coe et al. (2004) TIBG 29, 4 on global production systems and intersecting notions of power, value, and embeddedness. The entire issue of (2008) J. Econ. Geog. 8, 3 is dedicated to global production networks. See Rutherford and Holmes (2008) J. Econ. Geog. 8, 4 on the state’s role in actor networks in GPNs. Coe (2012) PHG 36, 3, 388 argues that the global production network is ‘perhaps best thought of as a heuristic framework for understanding the interconnectedness and uneven development of the global economy’. That is, it enables students to discover or learn something for themselves.