Revisiting risk in the Global Production Network approach 2.0 - Towards a performative risk narrative perspective

Abstract

Until the so-called GPN 2.0 approach placed it on the research agenda, risk had played a subordinate role in the literature on global production networks (GPN). In GPN 2.0, Knight's economic notion of risk is applied and defined as rationally calculable, in contrast to uncertainties. However, this still dominant conceptualization of risk falls short of an actor-centered focus, which is a focal point of the GPN 2.0 approach. Therefore, we advocate for a stronger conceptual integration of a social constructivist premise with a spatio-relational understanding of risk to enhance the explanatory power of GPN risk. This article highlights that GPN risk needs to be framed as becoming causally significant in the perception and expectations of organizational decision-makers. We argue that the organization-environment interaction causes the production and constitution of risk. In pursuit of an integrative research design, we develop a multi-scalar framework based on a performative risk narrative perspective.