Governance Model and Rents Allocation in Asymmetrical Power Relations: The Case of Notebook Computer Industry

International subcontracting relationships are often characterized by considerable power asymmetries. The actors in global value chain obtained different profits. Different governance dominant modes reflect different roles of countries and enterprises played in the global value chains and result in different industrial international competitiveness in the end Through a relation model of upstream and downstream nodes and a case study of notebook computer industry, the paper identified the status of actors and the market structures in different value nodes influences the rents distribution among global value chains. The leader firms in the global value chains that possess status advantages and market power account for income growing gap between developed and developing countries.