Summaries This article is intended to contribute to the process of building a set of tools that will help advance the debate on the shape and trajectory of global economic integration. The article uses a ‘Value‐chain’ approach to construct a set of conceptual terms and concepts intended to better specify the concrete actors in the global economy as well as the linkages that bind them into a larger whole. I propose a set of terms and concepts that specify three critical value chain dimensions: organizational scale, geographic scale and types of value chain productive actors. The article also lays out a distinction between value chains and production networks.