ABSTRACT
Contemporary global production networks are confronted with risks due to their complexity and current global crises. Managing risk in global production networks has also become a topic in economic geography that aims to explore how risk mitigation strategies can lead to reconfiguration processes. However, the dominant objective economic understanding of risk narrows the view of the complexity of the actors’ decision-making. As a result, new conceptual ideas propose a performative risk narrative (PRN) perspective that advocates for a subjective interpretation of risk within global production networks to understand individual and collective perceptions and future expectations. By empirically applying the PRN perspective, this chapter sheds light on how risk narratives shape the architecture and reconfiguration strategies in medical technology global production networks. The case study shows that risk narratives of both the certification agencies and the lead firms concerning the safety of the patients shape the configuration of the global production networks. As medical technology companies, however, are dependent on their global suppliers and must comply with the prevailing PRN, their ability to reconfigure their global production network to ensure a reliable supply and a flexible response to supply disruptions is limited.
