This week, eBay Inc.’s Public Policy Lab participated in this year’s Annual RESER International Conference. Earlier this year, the Lab had submitted a trade research paper to RESER, the European Association for Research on Services, which was accepted. Hanne Melin represented eBay Inc. in Helsinki, Finland and presented the paper at the conference.

RESER is a network of research groups and individuals active in services research and policy formulation. Its two-day Annual International Conference is a multidisciplinary forum, where researchers in economics, geography, sociology, management, and marketing meet to share the latest advances in research on services. The theme of this year’s conference was “Innovation for Sustainable Growth and Welfare”.

The Lab’s paper, entitled “Inclusive trade: the promise of the global empowerment network”, builds on the report “Commerce 3.0 for Development”, which was launched last year by Rupert Keeley at the World Trade Organisation (see here). The paper presents research results showing how small businesses in eight emerging and developing markets, utilizing the Internet and technology in the shape of eBay Marketplaces, export to multiple different destinations. The findings mirror the result of our research in developed markets. Importantly, these findings confirm that the technology-enabled marketplace looks fundamentally different to the traditional marketplace where exporting is dominated by a few superstars and confined to well-established trade corridors.

The paper argues that a new system for engaging in globalization now exists and should be accompanied by a new internationalization model for policy formulation. The most commonly used model – the Global Value Chain model – thinks about world trade from the perspective of global networks of buyers and suppliers and the competencies of trade actors relative to each other. The Lab reasons that policymakers should think about world trade from the perspective of global networks of certain services and conditions and the competencies of the trade actors in relation to those services and conditions.

Small businesses can today be empowered to export not only by integrating or affiliating with large multinationals, but also by leveraging and customizing:

• Internet connectivity
• The digital services that run on top of the Internet
• Clever logistics solutions

The working name for the Lab’s proposed internationalization model is the “Global Empowerment Network”. The idea is that three “modules” – the internet, services and logistics – together enable small businesses to engage in world trade. It follows that trade policy should encompass efforts to ensure open and reliable Internet, the right conditions for digital services to be provided, and the right incentives and conditions for seamless postal and customs processes. Based on detailed analysis of the situation in the eight emerging and developing countries selected for the study, the research paper provides concrete examples of what type of issues should form part of a trade policy aimed at promoting exporting by small, technology-enabled businesses. These include:

• Investment in open, interconnected broadband and smartphone technology
• Optimized and harmonized shipping and postal regimes
• Robust intermediary liability protections
• Increased and harmonized de minimis thresholds
• International exhaustion of copyright and trademark rights
• Promoting electronic payment methods
• Improved customs processes through increased technology adoption
• Recognition of technology-enabled SMEs and the global empowerment network in free trade agreements

Learn more about eBay Inc.’s Public Policy Lab research.