The disintermediation of the furniture supply chain: Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs at the global-local nexus

Abstract

In the contemporary world-economy Chinese firms have significantly improved their positions within global supply chains. One way this has been achieved is through the disintermediation of supply chains, i.e. their evolution from contract manufacturing to original equipment manufacturing. The more successful firms are even retailing indigenously developed products to western end consumers. The global value chains (GVCs) paradigm of the economic sociology understands this phenomenon as improving firm- and meso- level competencies motivated by economics. Consequently, how individual agency and broader social contexts influence transnational production is not well understood. Based on interviews with 18 Chinese entrepreneurs of factory direct furniture retailers in Sydney, this study finds that individual agency within particular sociohistorical contexts are influential to the disintermediation of global supply chains. The results show that the GVCs paradigm needs refinement in order to fully understand global supply chains and disintermediation as sociological – rather than economic – phenomena.