We have so far traced the history of different current strands in GPN research and discussed a
range of concrete examples that have emerged over the last few years. There are certainly
more publications on GPN than could be referenced and appreciated here. What has become
clear from our admittedly selective discussion, however, is the variety of lenses through
which networks in different industries and in different parts of the world are viewed. There is
certainly much common ground in all of these studies, but the differences between them have
become equally obvious. Therefore, there arises a question of whether there can or should be
a unified approach to GPN analysis and what such a framework needs to acknowledge.