ABSTRACT
Informed by critical realism and a 'network' perspective stemming from the works of Granovetter, the global production network (GPN) approach is the prominent conceptual framework in which to examine multinational enterprises (MNEs), production networks and the region in Economic Geography. International business has strong conceptual understandings of the black box of the MNE, including how and why it is organised in a particular way through strategic and operational means, whilst economic geography has knowledge of the spatial organisation of production networks in national and subnational geographical spaces. In the case of economic geography, the dominant perspective of GPN has tended to provide an insufficient account of the internal dynamics of MNEs, thus leaving the 'black box' in place. A key element of more networked MNEs is the creation of specialised subsidiaries and increasingly differentiated value chains, where parents possess and exercise disparate decision-making powers.
