THE PARADIGM SHIFT IN VALUE CREATION: FROM LINEAR CHAINS TO GLOBAL DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS

The concept of "value"specifically, the mechanisms by which it is created, captured, and distributedconstitutes the central nervous system of contemporary economic theory and strategic management.This research paper delivers an exhaustive, multi-dimensional analysis of value creation architectures, tracing their intellectual phylogeny from the agrarian models of the 18th-century Physiocrats to the hyper-connected, algorithmically governed digital ecosystems of 2025.The study deconstructs the foundational industrial logic of Michael Porter (1985), contrasting his firm-centric linearity with the state-centric French filière school and the sociologically driven Global Commodity Chains (GCC) framework.The analysis further traverses the critical theoretical pivot of the 1990s, where the manufacturing metaphor was dismantled by Normann, Ramirez, Stabell, and Fjeldstad into "value constellations" and "value networks".A significant portion of this inquiry is dedicated to the contemporary landscape (2015-2025), examining how Industry 4.0, blockchain, and the imperative of the circular economy are forcing a fundamental rewriting of value theory.Crucially, the paper applies these theoretical lenses to the Ukrainian economic context, synthesizing the work of leading Ukrainian scholars (Duginets, Melnyk, Pylypenko, Chepeliev, Sidenko) to understand how a transition economy integrates into Global Value Chains (GVCs) amidst geopolitical fracture and war.The findings suggest that the "chain" metaphor is increasingly obsolete for service and digital economies, and that passive GVC integration without proactive industrial policy risks trapping transition economies in a state of "immiserizing growth".The study concludes by proposing a "cluster approach" for Ukraine's post-war recovery, advocating for the construction of domestic filières in critical sectors to ensure national resilience.