Abstract

Afonso Fleury and Maria Tereza Leme Fleury would like to introduce their new thoughts on supply networks based on their recent research work in digital game industry.

Power has held a secondary position in most supply chain analysis, driving authors like Cox (JSCM 1999, 2001) to alert researchers and practitioners about the risks of such parsimonious attention. Analyses either take a lead firm perspective in which power is taken for granted or take it implicitly due to measurement difficulties. The concept of power comes out in a more explicit way in the Global Value Chains (GVC) literature, through the governance and upgrading concepts. In order to advance the understanding of power and governance in supply chains we discuss how non-lead firms located in emerging countries manage power relationships to upgrade in the supply chain. That is done through a multiple cases study of Brazilian firms in the digital games industry.