Governance Uncertainty in the Global Value Chain: Institutional Struggle and Power Dynamics in the Space Industry

By extending the global value chain (GVC) literature through institutional logics perspective (ILP), the authors qualitatively investigate how institutional struggle is perceived in the space industry GVC and how it informs us about the relation between power dynamics and emergence of governance uncertainty in GVCs. Our findings reveal a social construction of power dynamics implying all collective actors, driven by divergent, still overlapping logics, defined as Old Space and New Space in the industry. This confrontation of logics around divergent visions, scopes, organizations and practices paves the way to the emergence of governance uncertainty. The authors define its four dimensions and highlight the role of the state as strategic orchestrator, amalgamating the coexistence of Old Space and New Space logics. While introducing a previously overlooked outcome of power dynamics in GVCs, our chapter brings a fresh, sociological understanding of power in International Business (IB) showing a social construction of power dynamics through its symbolic representations and material foundations. Finally, it brings new insights on the temporality of agency and volatility of competitive advantage in processes of institutional transformation of GVCs.