Annabelle Gawer presents cutting-edge contributions from 24 top international scholars from 19 universities across Europe, the USA and Asia, from the disciplines of strategy, economics, innovation, organization studies and knowledge management. The novel insights assembled in this volume...

Based on clinical field research data, this paper explores emerging patterns of automobile distribution in America. The paper focuses particularly on two aspects of the changes in the late 1990s: (1) new forms of automobile retailers in both used cars and new car businesses (e.g., so called...

This paper reports a speech by Michikazu Tanaka, former Senior Managing Director in charge of Production at Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., about Taiichi Ohno, the creator of so called Toyota Production System (T. P. S.). Tanaka explains how Ohno, Executive Vice President of Toyota then, led the...

This paper summarizes a questionnaire survey conducted in the first half of 1999 as to historical developments and recent trends of parts transaction practices, component design architecture, inter-firm knowledge transfer, and competitive performance. 153 Japanese first-tier parts suppliers...

In international business, much attention has been directed to the international expansion of firms based on their use of resources and competitive capabilities that have been built up in a home country to create a competitive advantage over host-country firms. More recently, the organizational...

This paper presents both quantitative and clinical data from comparative studies of automobile product development, which I have participated in during the 1980s, early 1990s, and mid 1990s mainly at Harvard University. It focuses on the Japanese advantages in the 1980s, the western "reverse...

The paper proposes a systematic explanation as to how the Japanese automobile suppliers system generated international competitive advantages in the 1980s and thereafter. Based not only on the survey of existing literature, some of which were never introduced in English in the past, but also the...