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Many unskilled labour-intensive production tasks began to be offshored by advanced country firms todeveloping countries, where low-cost but relatively unskilled labour imparted a comparative advantage,essentially in final assembly operations, combined with institutions that could absorb firm-specifictechnological know-how. This profitable international production fragmentation became feasible with theonset of the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution, which enabled the coordinationof spatially dispersed complex tasks at a relatively low cost. The growth of global supply chains haschanged the distribution of incomes across countries. Participation in these supply chains, initiated by thesuccessful completion of low value-added manufacturing tasks, contributed to industrialisation and highrates of economic growth in several Asian developing economies. The process of catch-up with developedeconomies is likely to get stronger as many of these countries, where low-cost but relatively unskilled labour imparted a comparative advantage,essentially in final assembly operations, combined with institutions that could absorb firm-specifictechnological know-how. This profitable international production fragmentation became feasible with theonset of the information and communications technology (ICT) revolution, which enabled the coordinationof spatially dispersed complex tasks at a relatively low cost. The growth of global supply chains haschanged the distribution of incomes across countries. Participation in these supply chains, initiated by thesuccessful completion of low value-added manufacturing tasks, contributed to industrialisation and highrates of economic growth in several Asian developing economies. The process of catch-up with developedeconomies is likely to get stronger as many of these countries seek to move up the value chain through theirexposure to advanced technologies (made available by the offshoring process) and build up human capital.At the same time, the continued exclusion of several developing economies from global supply chains,such as those in Africa, means that the gap among countries in the developing world could widen. The International fragmentation of production has also affected the distribution of incomes within countries. Inadvanced economies, the direct, negative effect of production fragmentation on employment and wages forlowand semi- skilled workers is the primary concern. In developing economies, production fragmentation islikely to create jobs for a large pool of unskilled labour. However, because a relatively unskilled activity ina developed economy may be a relatively skilled one in a developing economy, offshoring may increase thedemand for (and returns on) skilled labour among developing economies. These distribution effects, bothacross and within countries, are likely to affect trade policy, and consequently, the evolution of supplychains.Changes in the structure of 20th century international industrial organisation that have incited researchinterest among economists have also driven a significant body of work in the business literature. Indeed,many of the factors driving the changing industrial structure are derived from business. Examples include theinnovation and implementation of assembly lines, scientific management, modularisation, leanmanufacturing, and just- intime production. While the economics literature has produced terminology suchas“task  trade”, “vertical specialisation”, and “production sharing”, the business literature tends to emphasise “supply chains”. This is in conjunction with terms from politicaleconomists and developmenttheorists that include “value chains”, “global commodity chains”, and “global production networks”. Ofthese, the supply chain provides the most relevant perspective for the business practitioner. Networks offirms are viewed from a focal firm perspective, and the supply chain ontology adopts various dimensions toorient a firm with its network surroundings (for example, direct-extended-ultimate supply chains, horizontaltiers or degrees of separation, and vertical structures within each tier). Further functionalising the supplychain concept is the field of supply chain management (SCM). Born from multidisciplinary roots thatinclude logistics, marketing, management, and sociology, SCM has developed into a distinct field of studyover the past fifty years. SCM theory has only recently reached a state of maturation where it producesoperationalisable concepts and tools, but progress is being made in advancing both the overarching field ofSCM and the specific issues that fall under the SCM umbrella. This chapter will review the overarching field,while Part II and its chapters will address the specific issues.