Filtering Strategic Coupling: Territorial Intermediaries in Oil and Gas Global Production Networks in Southeast Asia

The brokerage role of small states and territories in global corporate networks

“…Our findings provide further evidence of other studies noting that small states and territories appear to use “different filtering mechanisms” to shape global regional development and the exacerbation of inequality between nations (Breul, Diez, & Sambodo, 2019, p. 829). Indeed, our analysis suggests that financial flows to, from and between tax havens are significant and prevalent in global economic networks.…”

Endogenous Obstacles to Development in Global Value Chains: Insights From the Oil and Gas Sector

“…A case study on Cape Town by Scholvin (2017) shows that this city plays such a positive role in spite of certain limitations, which are further investigated in this analytical report. Yet, other scholars – especially Breul and Revilla Diez (2019) as well as Breul et al (2019) – argue that gateways may also concentrate economic activities to the detriment of subordinate places. The prospects of developing countries are, therefore, reduced to resource extraction and generic services such as catering, security, and transport of personnel.…”

“One thing leads to another”, but where? – Gateway cities and the geography of production linkages

“…Many commodity source regions in the Global South do not provide such an environment and have, therefore, not been able to fully exploit the opportunities for greater embeddedness of extractive investments (Narula, 2018). Examples of limited production linkages are the Zambian Copperbelt (Fessehaie, 2011; Kragelund & Carmody, 2016), oil and gas activities in Angola (Teka, 2012), Indonesia and Vietnam (Breul et al, 2019) or gold mining in Tanzania (Mjimba, 2011).…”

“…This idea is supported by empirical evidence from different regional contexts. Various studies demonstrate that the global integration of commodity source regions has led to production linkages being created in central city nodes outside, but close to the resource periphery––such as Santiago de Chile (Atienza et al, 2018; Phelps et al, 2015), Cape Town (Scholvin, 2017) or Singapore (Breul & Revilla Diez, 2018; Breul et al, 2019)––from where extractive activities are integrated. These case study‐specific insights are supported by Bridge's (2008) general observation that the spatial footprint of extractive industries is characterised by two simultaneous trends––the geographical extensification of extractive activities and the spatial concentration of certain activities in particular city nodes.…”

“…First, the present article takes up this argument and extends it beyond national borders. Because recent studies from different regional contexts indicate that the global integration of commodity source regions into extractive industries has also led to the bundling of production linkages outside, but close to the country where the extraction takes place (Breul & Revilla Diez, 2017, 2018; Breul, Revilla Diez, & Sambodo, 2019; Scholvin, 2017). By focussing on macro‐regional production linkages the article aims to provide an explanation for Narula's (2018) finding that the greater opportunities for increasing the creation of production linkages have not been fully exploited in many resource‐holding countries or, in other words, why one thing does not necessarily lead to another.…”