Stefano Ponte
Professor
Telephone
Office: +4538154265
Departments
Department of Management, Society and Communication
Room: DH.Ø.2.23
Value chains
Sustainability
Climate
Environment
Primary research areas
International political economy
I study power relations in the allocation of scarce resources across the globe and their distributional effects - especially between the Global North and the Global South
Global value chains
I examine global value chains (especially in agriculture and food) from production of consumption and assess the dynamics of value creation, capture and redistribution among different actors
Sustainability and environmental governance
I analyse the governance of sustainability along global value chains and especially how business leverages environmental management for capital accumulation
I unveil power relations in the conduct of business and call out the inequalities that arise as a result
I look for the underlying problems before thinking of solutions
I am one of the scholars who built the theoretical and analytical foundations of global value chain analysis, especially in relation to various typologies of value chain governance, environmental upgrading trajectories for Global South actors, the theorization of power in value chains, and typologies of inequality.
I am known particularly for theoretical and empirical work that unpacks the normative foundations of structural power in global value chains. I examine how environmental, conservation and broader sustainability issues are leveraged by corporate actors for capital accumulation and the material and normative contestations that play around these dynamics. Empirically, I work mostly on agro-food value chains (including coffee, wine, seafood, biofuels) that have significant North-South flows.
Recent research projects
Environmental Maritime Governance in Kenya: Policy, Practice and Prospects for the Abatement of shipping Air Emissions (EMG-K) (co-investigator; PI: René Taudal Poulsen)
EMG-K studies: 1) Kenya’s engagement in policy making in the United Nation’s International Maritime Organization (IMO), which regulates shipping’s air emissions via the MARPOL Convention; and 2) the implementation and enforcement of IMO MARPOL Convention’s Annex VI in Kenyan ports.
Maritime emissions abatement has been said to depend on a global and uniform implementation of regulatory measures as well as strong enforcement. This is a particular challenge in the shipping industry with footloose and global operations.
Maritime emissions abatement has been said to depend on a global and uniform implementation of regulatory measures as well as strong enforcement. This is a particular challenge in the shipping industry with footloose and global operations.
The Paradoxes of Climate-Smart Coffee (PACSMAC) (co-investigator; PI: Kristjan Jespersen)
PACSMAC addresses sustainable development and climate change by studying prospects for climate-smart coffee using a multidisciplinary approach. Facing increasing temperatures and precipitation changes, farmers are testing new planting techniques and genetic varietals. PACSMAC explores these activities and how power dynamics across Global Value Chains (GVCs) affect opportunities for and benefits from climate adaptation, addressing three questions:
-How does climate change adaptation affect the governance of Ethiopia and Tanzania’s coffee value chains?
-How does adaptation affect the distribution of value along the chain, upgrading opportunities and farmer livelihoods?
-How does adaptation reshape coffee production and forest cover geographies?
Our findings identify ways climate-smart agriculture can support livelihoods and climate mitigation and adaptation
Go to website
-How does climate change adaptation affect the governance of Ethiopia and Tanzania’s coffee value chains?
-How does adaptation affect the distribution of value along the chain, upgrading opportunities and farmer livelihoods?
-How does adaptation reshape coffee production and forest cover geographies?
Our findings identify ways climate-smart agriculture can support livelihoods and climate mitigation and adaptation
Power and Inequality in Global Production Systems’ (PIPS) (PI)
The globalization of production has yielded new winners and losers within and across nations. Global Value Chain (GVC) scholarship in economic sociology and economic geography shows that the participation of Global South actors in GVCs has not led to significant increases in value addition within these countries.
As inequality in the distribution of value added between Global South and Global North persists, we need more knowledge on how lead firms exercise power over their suppliers and what kinds and combinations of power they yield. Research has focused on asymmetries in bargaining power without examining how other forms, such as institutional, demonstrative and constitutional power, underpin or challenge existing bargaining power imbalances over time.
To address these limitations, PIPS develops a new theory of power in GPSs from a North-South perspective and provides new pointers for public authorities and social movements on how to address inequality.
As inequality in the distribution of value added between Global South and Global North persists, we need more knowledge on how lead firms exercise power over their suppliers and what kinds and combinations of power they yield. Research has focused on asymmetries in bargaining power without examining how other forms, such as institutional, demonstrative and constitutional power, underpin or challenge existing bargaining power imbalances over time.
To address these limitations, PIPS develops a new theory of power in GPSs from a North-South perspective and provides new pointers for public authorities and social movements on how to address inequality.
Outside activities
Venice Management School. Cá Foscari University, Venice, 2025–2025
Visiting Professor
University of Johannesburg, CCRED, 2020–2024
Distinguished Visiting Professor
Department of Cultures, Politics and Society, University of Torino, 2023–2024
Visiting Professor
Department of Economics and Management, University of Padova , 2020–2021
Visiting Professor