Late industrialisation and global value chains under platform capitalism

Abstract

The digital (or 4th industrial) revolution has made industrialisation harder by being less consequential for structural transformation than was initially hoped. The rise of digital platform capitalism and its relation to global value chains (GVCs) is responsible for this. This paper explains why diminished expectations of the 4th industrial revolution are justified and how this is due to digital platforms as intellectual monopolies that are reconfiguring GVCs—and by this, making industrialisation harder. As such, the paper contributes to the research lacuna on the relationship between GVCs and digital platform capitalism. The implications for late industrialisation are identified, and broad recommendations for industrial policies are made.