Supplying lead firms, intangible assets and power in global value chains: Explaining governance in the fertilizer chain

Global suppliers of agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and agrochemicals exert increasing degrees power in global value chains (GVCs). Although the GVC literature has explained how buyers govern GVCs from buying-end, question achieve governance supplying-end remains underexplored. We address this gap by combining a multidimensional typology with on intangible assets. argue that assets are crucial resources for to morph otherwise ungovernable supply undifferentiated input commodities into more sophisticated governable GVCs. illustrate our argument case fertilizer supplier, YARA International. YARA's asset investments were instrumental governing chain integration Tanzanian smallholder farmers. They allowed than bargaining (demonstrative, institutional constitutive power) effectively position itself supplying lead firm Tanzania's agro-industrial GVC.