The Age of Global Capitalism -- Economic Globalization -- Corporate Financialization and Shareholder Value -- Saturated Markets and Oligopolistic Rent Seeking -- Buyer Power and Strategic Outsourcing -- Supplier Adjustment in the World of Category Management -- The New International Trade Regime -- Trends in Africa's International Trade -- The International Trade Regime Prior to WTO -- The New International Trade Regime -- Global Value Chain (GVC) Analysis -- Main Features -- Governance -- Upgrading -- The Rise of Buyer-Driven Global Value Chains in Africa -- The Rise of Buyer-Driven Chains -- Main Actors in, and Configurations of, Selected Global Value Chains -- Formal Regulatory Frameworks and Historical Changes in GVC Governance -- Strategies of Lead Firms -- Chain Driving? -- Entry Barriers, Marginalization, and Upgrading -- Entry Barriers for First- and Second-Tier Suppliers -- Marginalization and Exclusion -- Upgrading -- Quality Standards, Conventions, and the Governance of Global Value Chains -- Quality in Economic Analysis -- Convention Theory -- Quality, Entry Barriers, and Governance in GVCs: Empirical Evidence from Africa -- Conventions and the Governance of Global Value Chains -- Trading Down? -- Africa, Value Chains, and the Global Economy -- Trading Down? -- GVC Analysis and Future Research Directions.