Using a global value chain approach, this team developed a comprehensive website on North Carolina’s emerging workforce challenge, using information drawn from secondary sources and direct contact with companies located in the state’s most significant industries, and drew implications for education and economic competitiveness in the state.

The related course was an innovative, interdisciplinary research collaboration among students, faculty and staff focused on developing practical research and team project skills, creating networking opportunities with professionals (guest lectures and networking), identifying summer research work opportunities and creating outputs that matter to policymakers.

This year, team members looked at North Carolina’s Appalachian Regional Commission’s counties in the automotive and beverage value chains. The team created project plans and team charters, developed value chain maps of their industries, invited guest speakers from industry, government, community colleges and nonprofits, and developed websites, reports and academic articles summarizing their findings. 

Timing

Fall 2015 – Spring 2016

Team Outcomes

Shruti Rao. 2018. “Leveraging Global Value Chains to Bridge the Gap between Rural and Global Economies: Case of North Carolina’s Appalachian Automotive Industry.” Journal of Rural and Community Development 13(1):105-124.

Bass Connections: Global Value Chain Research (Bryan Dinner and Shruti Rao)

North Carolina Competitiveness: The Automotive Industry in Appalachian North Carolina (website)

The Beverage Value Chain in North Carolina (website)

The Automotive Value Chain in Appalachian North Carolina (report prepared for the Appalachian Regional Commission by Melissa Piana, Shruti Rao, Madeleine Roberts)

The Beverage Value Chain in the Appalachian Region of North Carolina (report by Bryan Dinner and Laura Baker)

Rural Development within Globalization: Using Global Value Chain Analysis to Compare Craft Brewing and Soft Drink Industry in North Carolina Appalachia (paper by Laura Baker with Lukas Brun, Bryan Dinner, Melissa Piana, Shruti Rao, Madeleine Roberts)

Using the Global Value Chain Framework to Identify Comparative Advantages for Economic Development in Rural Regions of the United States (paper by Bryan Dinner)

Increasing Rural U.S. Competitiveness Using Global Value Chains: The Case of the Automotive Industry in Appalachian North Carolina (paper by Madeleine Roberts)

The Beverage Industry in North Carolina (presentation by Laura Baker and Bryan Dinner)

North Carolina Competitiveness: The Automotive Industry in the NC Appalachian Region (presentation by Melissa Piana, Shruti Rao, Madeleine Roberts)

EHDx Talks (presentation by Bryan Dinner at the Nasher Museum of Art, April 13, 2016)

North Carolina in the Global Economy: “The New Appalachian Economy” (presentation by Gary Gereffi and Lukas Brun, November 23, 2015)

North Carolina in the Global Economy (presentation by Lukas Brun at the 2015 mfgCON, Raleigh, NC, October 20, 2015)

This Team in the News

Undergraduate Publishes Research Examining North Carolina Automotive Industry

In Appalachia, Bass Connections Team Finds Untold Stories of Rural Development

Industry and Academia Meet at mfgCon2015 in Raleigh, NC

Shruti Rao, Program II (Global Value Chain) ’18

Bryan Dinner, Public Policy Studies ’16

See photos of this project team on Flickr

This project team was originally part of the Education & Human Development theme of Bass Connections, which ended in 2022. See earlier related team, North Carolina Competitiveness: The Workforce Development Challenge (2014-2015).