Penny Bamber, Karina Fernandez-Stark explore Peru’s copper value chain
The Duke Center for International Development senior fellows co-authored an article examining the opportunities and challenges Peruvian suppliers face in their insertion into the mining global value chain.
Penny Bamber and Karina Fernandez-Stark, both senior fellows at the Duke Center for International Development, explore the opportunities and challenges that Peruvian suppliers face in their insertion into the copper mining global value chain.
In the Industrial and Corporate Change article “Innovation and competitiveness in the copper-mining GVC: developing local suppliers in Peru,” Bamber and Fernandez-Stark, along with Oswaldo Molina, Universidad del Pacífico, write that although Peru is one of the main producers of copper worldwide, the domestic industry has not yet fully taken advantage of the potential that the exploitation of this commodity offers.
Their analysis is based on a mixed-methods approach, combining both quantitative and qualitative primary and secondary sources, including semi-structured interviews with key actors in the Peruvian mining sector.
“Our findings suggest that the weak presence of Peruvian suppliers in a sector dominated by few foreign firms is due to global industry dynamics as well as the underdeveloped capabilities of local firms operating in a fragile local institutional setting,” the authors write. “However, their opportunities for their insertion are primarily in areas where new solutions are required, which places a demand on the supplier’s innovative capacity.”
Bamber is a global value chain expert with over a decade of experience in research and consulting at the intersection of international economics and economic development. Widely-cited, her work has covered a broad range of sectors and geographies, from inserting marginalized actors into the agricultural and mining industries in Latin America, advising on industrial policy development in the Philippines and identifying nearshoring opportunities in the healthcare sector for Central America, to examining the impact of automation on the future of Chinese industry.
Fernandez-Stark has more than 15 years of experience leading numerous research projects related to economic development and competitiveness around the world. She has consulted for the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, OECD, UNCTAD, ECLAC, and the African Development Bank. Stark authored the highly-cited book “The Global Value Chain Analysis: A Primer” and has written several articles on industrial upgrading and social and economic development. She is a 2007 graduate of the Duke Master of International Development Policy program.