Projects

The CGGC research team is currently involved in a number of principal projects, all of which draw strength from the use of the value chains framework.

Global Value Chains & Development

The Global Value Chain (GVC) Initiative, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, explores how the global organization of industries is changing the sources of competitive advantage for firms and regions around the world.  The GVC website contains comprehensive listings of the major researchers and publications associated with the burgeoning GVC perspective. The GVC Initiative promotes greater analytical precision, intellectual impact and policy relevance for this research framework, and it seeks to create a platform for on-going dialogue among user communities of practitioners and academics.
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Environment

In 2008 the CGGC embarked on a series of new projects, supported in part by the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). Our environmental research applies the value chain framework to the study of environmental issues in order to identify points of leverage that can be used to reduce the environmental footprint of firms in diverse industries.  These projects will hopefully encourage debate and ultimately drive policy changes in environmentally responsible directions.
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NC in the Global Economy

The North Carolina in the Global Economy project focuses on understanding how globalization affects both traditional and high-tech, knowledge-based industries in North Carolina. Using a unique website with innovative visualization tools created by faculty and student researchers at Duke, we show how North Carolina compares with other U.S. states and the rest of the world in terms of innovation, jobs, trade, and investment for seven of the state’s major industries.
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Global Engineering & Entrepreneurship

With financial support from the Kauffman Foundation, the CGGC has been engaged in research on engineering and entrepreneurship since 2006. The research projects have dealt with the state of engineering education competitiveness in the United States, the phenomenon of immigrant entrepreneurship, and sources of innovation and workforce development in varied overseas locations, such as India and China.
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Nanotechnology

The CGGC’s Nanotechnology project is funded by the National Science Foundation through a partnership with the University of California, Santa Barbara's Center for Nanotechnology in Society. This joint research project has focused on the diffusion of nanotechnology to China, South Korea, and Taiwan, as well as innovations in nanotechnology in North Carolina. Currently we are developing novel approaches to map the dissemination of nanomaterials in a variety of nano-enabled intermediates and final products.
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