FROM NATIONAL LINES TO GLOBAL NETWORKS: STRATEGIC COUPLING AND EVOLVING STATE-FIRM DYNAMICS IN SINGAPORE’S TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

While extant economic-geographical research has expounded upon the locational patterns of telecommunications infrastructure, less attention has been paid to the changing organisation of the industry itself. Mobilising the concept of ‘strategic coupling’ in the global production network (GPN) approach, this thesis addresses this lacuna by examining the evolving state-firm relations underpinning the globalisation of Singapore’s telecommunications industry since the 1980s. From a centralised monopoly structure, I show that the industry has since been coupled into an ensemble of global production networks through three sets of dynamics. First is the transformation of the national carrier into a regional communications group spearheading its own worldwide network of subsidiaries, partners and suppliers. Second is the influx of foreign carriers that have incorporated Singapore as a hub from which to orchestrate their Asia-Pacific operations. Third is the role of the (post)developmental state in catalysing a favourable institutional environment for the above national-global articulations. In doing so, the study advances geographical work on the telecommunications industry by shedding light on its multi-actor and multi-scalar dynamics. It also contributes to the scholarship on the political economy of GPNs, while bringing into view a broad bandwidth of firm-level strategies that are embedded within the same place.

Author dc:creator

• TAN XUAN KAI

• Global production network, strategic coupling, state-firm relations, telecommunications industry, Singapore