Business Services and the Financing of Global Production Networks : The Case of Global Law Firms in Southeast Asia

Financial and business services (FABS) as intermediaries play a significant role in global production networks (GPNs). Yet the mechanisms through which they influence the activities of lead and supplier firms in GPNs have received little in-depth attention. The paper addresses this shortcoming and examines how global legal business services configure the financial discipline of transnational corporations in Southeast Asia. It documents the way FABS articulate financial imperatives and encourage the reproduction of ‘global financial architectures'. It also shows, however, that temporal dynamics and spatial specificities in the power relations between FABS and transnational corporations (TNCs) generate variegated financial configurations. Southeast Asian TNCs adopt and adapt in ways that serve their interests. This implies that the governance effects of FABS have important temporal and spatial contingencies that need to be accounted for in analyses of GPNs