The global production networks in an electronics industry: The case of the Tijuana-San Diego binational region

The objective of this dissertation is to analyze the role that transnational subsidiary firms, located in the Tijuana-San Diego binational region, play in global production networks that characterizes the electronics industry. Specific purpose of the study is to analyze the different social relationships that are derived from the participation of these companies in global networks, as well as their effects on the binational region.;The main questions that guided this study are the following: (1) What is the role played by the electronic firms in the Tijuana-San Diego region in the formation and functioning of global production networks? (2) To what extent can the lengthening and complexity of the inter- and intra-firm networks in this specific sector be linked to the maturity and learning process that occurred in the binational region during the last thirty years? (3) How can public and private actors in the region influence the formation and function of these global networks, and how can the local linkages be improved and the added value increased?;The hypotheses that were tested in this research are based on the perspective of global commodity chains and network analysis. Both allowed me to explain the formation of global networks based on: (1) The input-output structure of the production relations in which the commodities or goods are involved. (2) The territoriality that follow these chains. (3) The institutional framework that influences these networks. This study is mainly centered on the analysis of the two first dimensions in one particular case: the study of electronics industry in the binational region of Tijuana-San Diego.;This analysis captures the different type of networks in which the electronics firms participate. There are very few firms that operate within the simple traditional networks, characterized by very limited interactions of the local firm with the actors in their markets. In contrast, a large number of electronics firms are involved in very complex global productive relations. In these, the labor force of the subsidiary firms keeps a direct and rough relationship to the chains of suppliers and consumers. Since many of the actors in the networks are within or around the binational region it is easier to the formation of these type of relationships. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).