Search Results

This chapter is a historical case study on management and labour at the Matsushita Group. A Chandlerian framework is applied to analyse the evolution of the multi-divisional structure and spin-offs from an early stage of the company's development. The Matsushita Union was established as an enterprise-wide union from the start. The company responded to corporate growth by extending its boundaries to include not only all the internal divisions, but also spin-off companies and subsidiaries. The resulting extension of the internal labour market gave much flexibility in securing stable employment, as uniform working terms and conditions facilitated the movement of workers between divisions and spin-off companies. But there was a gradual increase of diversity in working conditions within the company and the corporate group, culminating in the 2003 corporate restructuring and the planned break up of the Matsushita Union into fourteen separate unions in 2006.

Keiretsu are important for understanding the openness, or otherwise, of Japan's innovation system and MOT, corporate specialization, and boundary management. This chapter draws on a series of studies which portray keiretsu ties as both a cause and a consequence of innovation. They foster organizational learning and innovation, and they grow through strategies which allow spin-offs to commercialize core-company R&D. Innovation strategies can cause the ties to strengthen (as in the case of Matsushita), or weaken or become strained (Toyota-Denso). A quantitative study finds that keiretsu ties remained influential for non-R&D activities in the 1990s, while R&D relations became more strategic and less influenced by ‘legacy relations’.

This chapter examines the impact of unions' structure and strategy on specific labour outcomes. In particular, the results of Shunto wage bargaining rounds are analysed for specific roren federations at Toyota, Nissan, and Matsushita. There is systematic evidence that the dispersion in settlements has increased over time in all cases. The chapter also examines how increasingly diverse working conditions were introduced, with specific reference to the Matsushita Group and the NTT Group. In both cases, there is a clear trade-off between retaining lifetime employment and retaining income security.

William Mong, the Hong Kong entrepreneur, officially started business with Matsushita Electric Trading, the Japanese manufacturing giant, at a time when anti-Japanese sentiments were still rampant in Hong Kong. In 1954, the company's founder, Konosuke Matsushita, personally, and without any written agreement, entrusted Mong with the exclusive rights for the sale and distribution of National products in Hong Kong. The chapter describes Mong's attempts at localizing Matsushita's star product at the time, the classic vacuum radio, and the encounters with his Japanese salaryman counterparts that ensued. It reveals Mong's attention to detail, his high expectations, both of himself and others, and how he made use of Chinese transnational networks to expand his market.

This chapter examines Hong Kong's growing importance in Matsushita's plans for market expansion during the 1960s: as a showcase for National appliances; a test market for new export items, including refrigerators and washing machines; and a gateway to Southeast Asian markets that remained off-limits for political or economic reasons. Hong Kong became the Japanese manufacturer's strategic base at a time when protectionist trade policies were the norm in many other parts of the world.

This chapter starts by explaining the purpose of the book, which was put together to honour Mitsuo Matsushita, who served as the founding member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Appellate Body from 1995 to 2000. The chapter then gives a brief historical overview of his career and achievements. One of Matsushita’s achievements, it states, was to analyse the operation of the WTO’s dispute settlement system. His analysis concluded that the system has been relatively successful in resolving disputes, especially considering that the parties involved are sovereign states and that the WTO has only limited enforcement powers. One important consequence of that success, Matsushita argued, is that WTO Members have been bringing more cases involving more complex issues to the system for resolution. This has put the system under strain. Currently, the WTO faces the challenge of finding new, accountable, and appropriate structures, which are able to cope with globalization.

In this chapter, Julio A. Lacarte Muró maps out the important trends that have guided the development of the World Trade Organization and international trade. The conclusion reflects upon key issues that are discussed in this volume and that are significant for the WTO. This concluding chapter predicts the role of the WTO in the future of international economic law. Most world trade in goods and services will soon be conducted under preferential treatment, and a great number of new obligations—going beyond those contained in the present scope of the WTO—will come into force. Under those conditions, the WTO’s most-favoured-nation clause will lose a lot of its significance, and the international standards set by the free trade agreements will necessarily have to be met by countries if they wish to continue to enter those markets. A change of this nature will have worldwide repercussions, and countries will necessarily have to conform to it.