Articulating into the Global Production Network of Music Beyond Firms : A Tale of the Music Industry in Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: In this paper, the global production network (GPN) approach is employed to probe how regional institutions are functioning in the music industry and how they affect value flows in the royalty system of the music industry in a given territory. Besides answering these questions, the author endeavours to fill one theoretical gap in the GPN analytical framework that the processes between regional institutions and GPNs are seen as complementary interactions behind the process of strategic coupling, yet without any clear conceptualized discourse. This theoretical gap makes the research on institutions within the GPN analytical framework rare and seemingly less important. Through the case study of the music industry in Stockholm, Sweden, a crucial node of the global production network of music, the author has truly brought regional institutions into the spotlight. Accordingly, the process of the interactions between regional institutions and GPNs has been defined as the process of strategic participation in this paper. Moreover, additional discourses of technology and inter-industrial synergies have been opened, because previous studies of GPNs have discussed the GPN approach and its framework regarding mostly regional development leading to some misunderstandings about the position of technology and the presence of inter-industrial synergies in researching single industry with the GPN approach. In conclusion, regional institutions are playing significant roles in the music industry in Stockholm that points out the necessity and significance of conceptualizing the process of strategic participation. More studies on institutions and the concept of strategic participation are needed in order to find more evidence and enrich GPNs literature.