The bargaining power, value capture, and export performance of Vietnamese manufacturers in global value chains

•This study examines the payoff of upgrade and negotiation process initiatives taken by export manufacturers from emerging economies.•The study uses a structural equational modelling approach to analyse the data collected from 354 Vietnamese export manufacturers.•The study finds that all initiatives, except after-sales services, strengthen the manufacturers’ bargaining power and export performance.•The study is the first to identify two sources of bargaining power of emerging economy firms: negotiating process and functional upgrade.•This is the first large-scale empirical study investigating the bargaining power of emerging economy firms inserting in global value chains. This study examines the payoff of various initiatives taken by Vietnamese manufacturers to increase their bargaining power relative to global buyers and capture a larger share of the value generated in global value chains. The study focuses on functional upgrade initiatives (i.e., product development, after-sales services, distribution, and promotion) and negotiation process initiatives (i.e., market intelligence and improvement of negotiation skills). A structural equation modelling method is used to analyse the data collected in 2017 from 354 Vietnamese manufacturers inserted in global value chains. The study finds that all initiatives, except after-sales services, significantly strengthen the manufacturers' bargaining power, which, in turn, enhances their export performance.