Learning-Oriented GVC Participation and Firm Performance: Within-Role and Role-Reconfiguring Capability Upgrading in Chinese Manufacturing Firms

How is learning-oriented participation in global value chains (GVCs) associated with firm performance, and what role does capability upgrading play? Drawing on GVC upgrading and dynamic-capabilities research, this study retains the four established upgrading categories and organizes them into two higher-order groupings that differ in reconfiguration scope rather than in economic value, difficulty, or sequence: within-role upgrading (the Low-tier analytical grouping), comprising product and process improvement, and role-reconfiguring upgrading (the High-tier analytical grouping), comprising functional and value-chain change. Analyses use 222 Chinese manufacturing firms retained from an original 250-firm sample after a response-quality screen. Consistent partial least squares (PLSc) with 5000 bootstrap resamples shows that learning-oriented participation—organizational emphasis on technology transfer and technical cooperation—is strongly associated with both within-role (Low-tier; β = 0.78) and role-reconfiguring (High-tier; β = 0.76) upgrading, whereas its direct associations with operational, innovation, and financial performance are nonsignificant. Most scope-specific upgrading-performance paths are nonsignificant or unstable, yet the combined indirect association through upgrading is positive and significant for all three outcomes. Covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) reproduces the participation-upgrading associations and the absent direct effects. Expanded control estimates further show that scope-specific upgrading-performance paths are sensitive to control specification. The findings suggest that the performance relevance of learning-oriented GVC participation is better understood through an interrelated configuration of capability upgrading than as a direct participation–performance relationship.