Third, unlike its predecessors such as network analysis and the GCC/GVC analysis, GPNinspired
work in economic geography tends to rely much less on quantitative data. This
inherent distrust of quantitative data such as trade and production statistics is unfortunate as
empirical research in the GCC/GVC analysis shows their significance and usefulness in
providing a broad picture of the composition and operation of different transnational systems
of production and consumption in the global economy (see Feenstra and Hamilton, 2006).
Economic geographers who work in the spirit of the GPN paradigm should perhaps
incorporate more explicitly quantitative data and relevant statistical tools (including GIS
techniques) into their analysis of GPNs across the world. This call for integrating qualitative
and quantitative data in our research is certainly nothing new (see Sheppard, 2001). Of all the
different strands of research that fall under the broad rubric of new economic geographies, we
believe that GPN research provides the most convincing and likely research platform for such
an integration to take place.