Abstract Under the background of globalization,the regional economies based on the local industrial clusters have to interact actively with the outside actors in the global value chains so as to improve their competitiveness and achieve upgrading.The analysis of value chain governance lies in the center of the research on the local industrial cluster upgrading applied in the economic geography.This paper firstly defines the conception of the value chain governance and discusses the main types and evolvement of global value chain governance theoretically.Combining the opinions of Gereffi,Schmitz and Humphrey,the authors define the governance as the coordination and system arrangement in every value-added section exerted by the power owners or some mechanisms in the value chains.The types of governance are firstly put forward by Gereffi who distinguished the producer-driven value chain and the buyer-driven value chain.After that,they further divided the network into modular,relational and captive which forms the five types of governance.Next,the paper dissects the reasons and application of the value chain governance as well as its influence on the local industrial network upgrading.Because of the differentiation strategy,global competition and risk elusion,the leading firms have to execute the governance in the global value chains so that they may sustain the competitive advantages in the global competition.Meanwhile,the issue of governance in value chains is important.However,the upgrading tracks of the local industrial clusters in developing countries vary from the different types of governance.Ultimately it deeply discusses the present international theories of the governance in global value chains and brings forward the further research expectations.
2007, Vol. 22 
