Christel Lane and Jocelyn Probert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199214815
- eISBN:
- 9780191721779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214815.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business, Political Economy
This chapter presents a detailed analysis of two important supplier countries for mainly European buyer firms — Turkey and Romania. Turkish and Romanian firms are situated in their specific economic, ...
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This chapter presents a detailed analysis of two important supplier countries for mainly European buyer firms — Turkey and Romania. Turkish and Romanian firms are situated in their specific economic, social, and geo-political environments. The chapter enquires how national contexts have shaped firms' capabilities and their competitiveness as suppliers. It explores how supplier firms view the relationships with their buyers, with a particular focus on the distinctions they make between trading partners from different national origins.Less
This chapter presents a detailed analysis of two important supplier countries for mainly European buyer firms — Turkey and Romania. Turkish and Romanian firms are situated in their specific economic, social, and geo-political environments. The chapter enquires how national contexts have shaped firms' capabilities and their competitiveness as suppliers. It explores how supplier firms view the relationships with their buyers, with a particular focus on the distinctions they make between trading partners from different national origins.
Christel Lane and Jocelyn Probert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199214815
- eISBN:
- 9780191721779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214815.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business, Political Economy
This chapter presents a detailed analysis of two further important supplier countries — Mexico and China. While Mexico acts as a supplier for US firms, China is the largest supplier to both US and ...
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This chapter presents a detailed analysis of two further important supplier countries — Mexico and China. While Mexico acts as a supplier for US firms, China is the largest supplier to both US and European buyer firms. Mexican and Chinese firms are situated in their specific economic, social, and geo-political environments. The chapter enquires how national contexts have shaped firms' capabilities and their competitiveness as suppliers. It additionally explores how supplier firms view the relationships with their buyers.Less
This chapter presents a detailed analysis of two further important supplier countries — Mexico and China. While Mexico acts as a supplier for US firms, China is the largest supplier to both US and European buyer firms. Mexican and Chinese firms are situated in their specific economic, social, and geo-political environments. The chapter enquires how national contexts have shaped firms' capabilities and their competitiveness as suppliers. It additionally explores how supplier firms view the relationships with their buyers.
Gary Herrigel
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199557738
- eISBN:
- 9780191720871
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557738.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
Chapter introduces the problem of vertical disintegration, outlining the basic competitive dynamics that give rise to it. A five fold typology of supplier-customer relations is presented: arms ...
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Chapter introduces the problem of vertical disintegration, outlining the basic competitive dynamics that give rise to it. A five fold typology of supplier-customer relations is presented: arms length, captured, modular, relational contracts and sustained contingent collaboration. Sustained contingent collaboration is the modal relation in the current historical environment. The range of supplier strategies and public policies that are emerging to cope with sustained contingent collaboration are extensively discussed.Less
Chapter introduces the problem of vertical disintegration, outlining the basic competitive dynamics that give rise to it. A five fold typology of supplier-customer relations is presented: arms length, captured, modular, relational contracts and sustained contingent collaboration. Sustained contingent collaboration is the modal relation in the current historical environment. The range of supplier strategies and public policies that are emerging to cope with sustained contingent collaboration are extensively discussed.
Josh Whitford
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199286010
- eISBN:
- 9780191713903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286010.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter argues that American manufacturing is mired in an altogether partial transition to a more collaborative interfirm organization of production, rife with ongoing contradictions that sit ...
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This chapter argues that American manufacturing is mired in an altogether partial transition to a more collaborative interfirm organization of production, rife with ongoing contradictions that sit uneasily with sociological literatures on network organizational forms. Many large American manufacturers are making real efforts to follow the prescriptive tenets of the collaborative new production paradigm even as their efforts are deeply constrained by the need to hedge fundamental uncertainties caused by a history of poor relationships and a lack of institutional support. This combination of mixed motives and occasional abject failure leaves a relational structure that is neither the collaborative production network that Powell calls the very building block of the 21st century firm, nor is it an atomistic world of hostile arm's-length contracting. Rather, relationships between OEMs and suppliers in American durable manufacturing are best described as a complex mix of the two, suggesting that the possibilities are considerably less bifurcated than the existing literature would have them be.Less
This chapter argues that American manufacturing is mired in an altogether partial transition to a more collaborative interfirm organization of production, rife with ongoing contradictions that sit uneasily with sociological literatures on network organizational forms. Many large American manufacturers are making real efforts to follow the prescriptive tenets of the collaborative new production paradigm even as their efforts are deeply constrained by the need to hedge fundamental uncertainties caused by a history of poor relationships and a lack of institutional support. This combination of mixed motives and occasional abject failure leaves a relational structure that is neither the collaborative production network that Powell calls the very building block of the 21st century firm, nor is it an atomistic world of hostile arm's-length contracting. Rather, relationships between OEMs and suppliers in American durable manufacturing are best described as a complex mix of the two, suggesting that the possibilities are considerably less bifurcated than the existing literature would have them be.
Tony Elger and Chris Smith
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199241514
- eISBN:
- 9780191714405
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199241514.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter analyses the evolution of management policies and work and employment relations in two smaller Japanese sub-contractors. Both firms were tightly constrained by customer-supplier ...
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This chapter analyses the evolution of management policies and work and employment relations in two smaller Japanese sub-contractors. Both firms were tightly constrained by customer-supplier relations, possessed limited managerial resources to support innovative production and employment policies, and faced problems in the recruitment, retention, and control of labour. Such circumstances prompted a selective and opportunistic adoption and adaptation of parent company management techniques, characterized in one case by the substantial autonomy of local management, but in the other by a fractious process of conflict within management. Japanese-inspired employment practices were less evident than a resort to the familiar tactics of labour regulation in other small enterprises, mixing elements of paternalism, formalization, informal mutuality, insecurity, and threat. The chapter addresses similarities and differences between the two factories in both management micropolitics and employment relations, linking these to distinctive subsidiary mandates, ownership structures, and relations with customers and competitors.Less
This chapter analyses the evolution of management policies and work and employment relations in two smaller Japanese sub-contractors. Both firms were tightly constrained by customer-supplier relations, possessed limited managerial resources to support innovative production and employment policies, and faced problems in the recruitment, retention, and control of labour. Such circumstances prompted a selective and opportunistic adoption and adaptation of parent company management techniques, characterized in one case by the substantial autonomy of local management, but in the other by a fractious process of conflict within management. Japanese-inspired employment practices were less evident than a resort to the familiar tactics of labour regulation in other small enterprises, mixing elements of paternalism, formalization, informal mutuality, insecurity, and threat. The chapter addresses similarities and differences between the two factories in both management micropolitics and employment relations, linking these to distinctive subsidiary mandates, ownership structures, and relations with customers and competitors.
Mari Sako
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199268160
- eISBN:
- 9780191708534
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199268160.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter presents a study of supplier development activities in the automobile sector. The national institutions of corporate governance in Japan make it easier for all Japanese automobile ...
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This chapter presents a study of supplier development activities in the automobile sector. The national institutions of corporate governance in Japan make it easier for all Japanese automobile companies to engage in know-how exchange beyond legally distinct units of financial control. Despite this institutional environment, Toyota has emerged as unique in its strategy and internal structure for engaging in such capability enhancement activities, compared to Nissan and other Japanese automobile companies.Less
This chapter presents a study of supplier development activities in the automobile sector. The national institutions of corporate governance in Japan make it easier for all Japanese automobile companies to engage in know-how exchange beyond legally distinct units of financial control. Despite this institutional environment, Toyota has emerged as unique in its strategy and internal structure for engaging in such capability enhancement activities, compared to Nissan and other Japanese automobile companies.
Josh Whitford
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199286010
- eISBN:
- 9780191713903
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199286010.003.0008
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Political Economy
This chapter argues that even when OEMs and suppliers in the American Upper Midwest have taken substantial steps to restructure their organizations in ways that force reliance on collaborative ...
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This chapter argues that even when OEMs and suppliers in the American Upper Midwest have taken substantial steps to restructure their organizations in ways that force reliance on collaborative relationships, many of those relationships are plagued by disingenuous and failed collaboration that result from the systematic failures of firms to follow their own collaborative strategies, owing often to intrafirm factors, such as factional conflicts within and across OEM departments and the difficulty of realigning incentives to reward behaviours aimed at cementing long-term collaboration. These failures generate substantial organizational uncertainty that encourages both suppliers and OEMs to hedge against the unreliability of contracting partners, blocking the virtuous circle in which reliability begets competency begets reliability. The result is that reform efforts put forth by some in both OEMs and suppliers are themselves blocked, ensuring that the transition to a more collaborative new production paradigm in American manufacturing is unlikely to advance much further.Less
This chapter argues that even when OEMs and suppliers in the American Upper Midwest have taken substantial steps to restructure their organizations in ways that force reliance on collaborative relationships, many of those relationships are plagued by disingenuous and failed collaboration that result from the systematic failures of firms to follow their own collaborative strategies, owing often to intrafirm factors, such as factional conflicts within and across OEM departments and the difficulty of realigning incentives to reward behaviours aimed at cementing long-term collaboration. These failures generate substantial organizational uncertainty that encourages both suppliers and OEMs to hedge against the unreliability of contracting partners, blocking the virtuous circle in which reliability begets competency begets reliability. The result is that reform efforts put forth by some in both OEMs and suppliers are themselves blocked, ensuring that the transition to a more collaborative new production paradigm in American manufacturing is unlikely to advance much further.
Christel Lane and Jocelyn Probert
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199214815
- eISBN:
- 9780191721779
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199214815.003.0007
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business, Political Economy
This chapter surveys the factors that have given rise to foreign sourcing and analyses the divergent manner in which national institutional environments, as well as international regulatory bodies, ...
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This chapter surveys the factors that have given rise to foreign sourcing and analyses the divergent manner in which national institutional environments, as well as international regulatory bodies, have shaped the coordination and governance of global production networks (GPNs). It shows how, in building GPNs, firms' various strategic concerns, particularly cost reduction, flexibility (in terms of capacity variation), and management of the extremely volatile competitive environment, have interacted with both domestic and global institutional opportunities and constraints to result in a complex web of influences. Additionally, the nationally diverse capabilities, resources and strategies of retail customers are shown to exert a strong influence on power relations in the GPN. In outlining different national sourcing strategies, the chapter explores both the mode of sourcing and the locational choices of firms. Finally, it analyses the nature of relationships in the network between western buyer firms and their contractors in low-wage countries.Less
This chapter surveys the factors that have given rise to foreign sourcing and analyses the divergent manner in which national institutional environments, as well as international regulatory bodies, have shaped the coordination and governance of global production networks (GPNs). It shows how, in building GPNs, firms' various strategic concerns, particularly cost reduction, flexibility (in terms of capacity variation), and management of the extremely volatile competitive environment, have interacted with both domestic and global institutional opportunities and constraints to result in a complex web of influences. Additionally, the nationally diverse capabilities, resources and strategies of retail customers are shown to exert a strong influence on power relations in the GPN. In outlining different national sourcing strategies, the chapter explores both the mode of sourcing and the locational choices of firms. Finally, it analyses the nature of relationships in the network between western buyer firms and their contractors in low-wage countries.
Miranda Threlfall-Holmes
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199253814
- eISBN:
- 9780191719813
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199253814.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Medieval History
Very little is known about the merchants trading in the north-east in this period. The Durham evidence provides an important insight into a cross section of the producers, manufacturers and traders ...
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Very little is known about the merchants trading in the north-east in this period. The Durham evidence provides an important insight into a cross section of the producers, manufacturers and traders active in the region in the late middle ages. Surprisingly, it is found that the priory sourced goods from a wide variety of merchants in each product category, and rarely had long or exclusive relationships with particular suppliers. Cloth provided a notable exception to this pattern. The wider relationships between the priory and its suppliers are discussed, with particular reference to those who appear in the Liber Vitae. Family groupings, locations, specialisms, and the gender of suppliers are considered, and there is a detailed case-study of the suppliers of cloth. It is found that whilst goods were bought from a wide area, the north-east region provided sufficient choice to satisfy the majority of the priory's needs.Less
Very little is known about the merchants trading in the north-east in this period. The Durham evidence provides an important insight into a cross section of the producers, manufacturers and traders active in the region in the late middle ages. Surprisingly, it is found that the priory sourced goods from a wide variety of merchants in each product category, and rarely had long or exclusive relationships with particular suppliers. Cloth provided a notable exception to this pattern. The wider relationships between the priory and its suppliers are discussed, with particular reference to those who appear in the Liber Vitae. Family groupings, locations, specialisms, and the gender of suppliers are considered, and there is a detailed case-study of the suppliers of cloth. It is found that whilst goods were bought from a wide area, the north-east region provided sufficient choice to satisfy the majority of the priory's needs.
Gary G. Hamilton, Benjamin Senauer, and Misha Petrovic
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199590179
- eISBN:
- 9780191724893
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590179.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This book describes and analyzes the transformation that occurred in retailing in the last half of the twentieth century and demonstrates that this transformation has substantially changed the global ...
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This book describes and analyzes the transformation that occurred in retailing in the last half of the twentieth century and demonstrates that this transformation has substantially changed the global economy. This transformation is both obvious and largely unrecognized. It is obvious, because the transformation is a part of our everyday lives. In the United States, in 1954, there were only 500 shopping centers across the country, most of which were by today’s standard very small. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the shopping centers in the USA alone number over 50,000, many of which are gargantuan. This same expansion is happening throughout the world. In fact, the largest shopping centers are no longer in the USA, but are scattered around the globe. Many of the newest and largest of them are now in Asia. As pervasive and obvious as these changes are, there has been surprisingly little research on the global effects of retailing. This book is among the first books to address this important topic in a systematic and highly readable manner. The authors demonstrate that retailers and merchandisers increasingly organize the global economy by developing two types of markets, consumer markets and supplier markets. Using point-of-sales information, retailers anticipate and try to create consumer markets for the goods they sell. Based on this information, retailers also create and maintain supplier markets for the goods that they buy from manufacturers and that they in turn sell to consumers. Retailers attempt to “make” both types of markets, by setting prices and the terms and conditions of exchange. The extraordinary success that retailers and merchandisers have enjoyed in making both types of markets has had far-reaching consequences on how all national economies perform in an age of global retailing.Less
This book describes and analyzes the transformation that occurred in retailing in the last half of the twentieth century and demonstrates that this transformation has substantially changed the global economy. This transformation is both obvious and largely unrecognized. It is obvious, because the transformation is a part of our everyday lives. In the United States, in 1954, there were only 500 shopping centers across the country, most of which were by today’s standard very small. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the shopping centers in the USA alone number over 50,000, many of which are gargantuan. This same expansion is happening throughout the world. In fact, the largest shopping centers are no longer in the USA, but are scattered around the globe. Many of the newest and largest of them are now in Asia. As pervasive and obvious as these changes are, there has been surprisingly little research on the global effects of retailing. This book is among the first books to address this important topic in a systematic and highly readable manner. The authors demonstrate that retailers and merchandisers increasingly organize the global economy by developing two types of markets, consumer markets and supplier markets. Using point-of-sales information, retailers anticipate and try to create consumer markets for the goods they sell. Based on this information, retailers also create and maintain supplier markets for the goods that they buy from manufacturers and that they in turn sell to consumers. Retailers attempt to “make” both types of markets, by setting prices and the terms and conditions of exchange. The extraordinary success that retailers and merchandisers have enjoyed in making both types of markets has had far-reaching consequences on how all national economies perform in an age of global retailing.
Yossi Sheffi
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- May 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780262029797
- eISBN:
- 9780262330626
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262029797.003.0007
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
Globalization implies that suppliers play a growing role in the companies’ risks, disruptions, and response options. Chapter 7 delves into companies’ proactive approaches toward supplier risk ...
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Globalization implies that suppliers play a growing role in the companies’ risks, disruptions, and response options. Chapter 7 delves into companies’ proactive approaches toward supplier risk management, using a segmentation of the procurement conditions. It is based, on the one hand, on the complexity and risk associated with the input purchased from the supplier and, on the other hand, on the company’s annual expenditure with that supplier. The chapter also discusses the growing problem of counterfeit materials that arise as supply chains grow longer and more opaque.Less
Globalization implies that suppliers play a growing role in the companies’ risks, disruptions, and response options. Chapter 7 delves into companies’ proactive approaches toward supplier risk management, using a segmentation of the procurement conditions. It is based, on the one hand, on the complexity and risk associated with the input purchased from the supplier and, on the other hand, on the company’s annual expenditure with that supplier. The chapter also discusses the growing problem of counterfeit materials that arise as supply chains grow longer and more opaque.
Steven Casper
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199247752
- eISBN:
- 9780191596346
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199247757.003.0012
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic Systems
The chapter examines the key role played by legal frameworks in the construction of the political economy and its relationship to corporate strategy. Germany and the US have different legal systems. ...
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The chapter examines the key role played by legal frameworks in the construction of the political economy and its relationship to corporate strategy. Germany and the US have different legal systems. Drawing on an analysis of legal challenges associated with supplier network modernization within the automobile industry, the chapter demonstrates how German patterns of non‐market business coordination and highly regulatory laws channel firms towards patterns of corporate strategy associated with incremental innovation, or ‘diversified quality production’, and constrain against more radical innovation strategies. In the US, a more classical legal system combined with predominantly market‐based inter‐firm relations conduces towards radically innovative corporate strategies, but impinge on the establishment of incremental innovation patterns associated with diversified quality production.Less
The chapter examines the key role played by legal frameworks in the construction of the political economy and its relationship to corporate strategy. Germany and the US have different legal systems. Drawing on an analysis of legal challenges associated with supplier network modernization within the automobile industry, the chapter demonstrates how German patterns of non‐market business coordination and highly regulatory laws channel firms towards patterns of corporate strategy associated with incremental innovation, or ‘diversified quality production’, and constrain against more radical innovation strategies. In the US, a more classical legal system combined with predominantly market‐based inter‐firm relations conduces towards radically innovative corporate strategies, but impinge on the establishment of incremental innovation patterns associated with diversified quality production.
Timothy Sturgeon, John Humphrey, and Gary Gereffi
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199590179
- eISBN:
- 9780191724893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590179.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
In this chapter, Timothy Sturgeon, John Humphrey, and Gary Gereffi analyze the co-evolutionary character of market making, in which the initial trials with global sourcing in the 1970s and 1980s by a ...
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In this chapter, Timothy Sturgeon, John Humphrey, and Gary Gereffi analyze the co-evolutionary character of market making, in which the initial trials with global sourcing in the 1970s and 1980s by a few retailers helped spur the development of an increasingly competent group of contract manufacturers mainly located in East Asia. These contractors acquired the capabilities necessary to produce products to the specifications of leading firms in the West. Some of the early deals were made directly with Asian manufacturers, whereas others relied on Asian intermediaries (for example, trading firms) to organize and coordinate production in Asia. These early moves provided both an example and a ready-made supply base for other retailers and branded marketers not yet engaged in global sourcing. The increasing competence of these contract manufacturers also dovetailed with a trend toward outsourcing by manufacturing firms in the USA, including leading companies in technology-intensive sectors such as electronics, accelerating the creation of a global supply base of contract manufacturers. In the 1990s, as retailers and brand-name merchandisers passed more responsibility on to contract manufacturers for process development, material sourcing, and even some aspects of product design, the global supply base began to be populated by large, “full-package” contractors with a full range of capabilities. Today, the depth and breadth of the global manufacturing supply base, along with new internet-based tools for buyer–supplier matchmaking and operational coordination, may be opening a new stage in the development of global sourcing.Less
In this chapter, Timothy Sturgeon, John Humphrey, and Gary Gereffi analyze the co-evolutionary character of market making, in which the initial trials with global sourcing in the 1970s and 1980s by a few retailers helped spur the development of an increasingly competent group of contract manufacturers mainly located in East Asia. These contractors acquired the capabilities necessary to produce products to the specifications of leading firms in the West. Some of the early deals were made directly with Asian manufacturers, whereas others relied on Asian intermediaries (for example, trading firms) to organize and coordinate production in Asia. These early moves provided both an example and a ready-made supply base for other retailers and branded marketers not yet engaged in global sourcing. The increasing competence of these contract manufacturers also dovetailed with a trend toward outsourcing by manufacturing firms in the USA, including leading companies in technology-intensive sectors such as electronics, accelerating the creation of a global supply base of contract manufacturers. In the 1990s, as retailers and brand-name merchandisers passed more responsibility on to contract manufacturers for process development, material sourcing, and even some aspects of product design, the global supply base began to be populated by large, “full-package” contractors with a full range of capabilities. Today, the depth and breadth of the global manufacturing supply base, along with new internet-based tools for buyer–supplier matchmaking and operational coordination, may be opening a new stage in the development of global sourcing.
Marko Arenius and Max Boisot
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199567928
- eISBN:
- 9780191728945
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199567928.003.0009
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Knowledge Management, Organization Studies
Drawing on four short case studies of how the ATLAS collaboration selects and works with its suppliers, this chapter highlights some of the issues involved. First it briefly outlines and discusses ...
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Drawing on four short case studies of how the ATLAS collaboration selects and works with its suppliers, this chapter highlights some of the issues involved. First it briefly outlines and discusses ATLAS's supplier selection process. It then presents a conceptual framework that helps categorize ATLAS suppliers. Finally, it presents the four cases and interprets them using both the framework and the I-Space. The chapter concludes by asking to what extent ATLAS's experience with its suppliers can be of use to other organizations.Less
Drawing on four short case studies of how the ATLAS collaboration selects and works with its suppliers, this chapter highlights some of the issues involved. First it briefly outlines and discusses ATLAS's supplier selection process. It then presents a conceptual framework that helps categorize ATLAS suppliers. Finally, it presents the four cases and interprets them using both the framework and the I-Space. The chapter concludes by asking to what extent ATLAS's experience with its suppliers can be of use to other organizations.
Richard P. Appelbaum
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199590179
- eISBN:
- 9780191724893
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590179.003.0010
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
In this chapter, Appelbaum examines a subset of these contract manufacturers in greater detail. The increase in global sourcing by large retailers and merchandisers has given rise to a few giant ...
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In this chapter, Appelbaum examines a subset of these contract manufacturers in greater detail. The increase in global sourcing by large retailers and merchandisers has given rise to a few giant transnational contractors, based primarily in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and China, that operate factories throughout the world. The emergence of these giant transnational contractors portends a dramatic shift in the organizational power within global supply chains, which may provide a counterweight to the growing power of large retailers. Global supply networks have typically been buyerdriven, with large retailers and branded manufacturers playing the central role in their creation and coordination. Most of the contractors have been small, reinforcing their vulnerability to big buyers. However, this situation is changing with the emergence of large contract manufacturers. This chapter examines several examples of these giant contract manufacturers, including Nien Hsing Textiles, Li & Fung, and Yue Yuen/Pou Chen. Increasingly, large contractors, and not the retailers, manage the supply chain. Their emergence, along with the pressure of lean retailing for cost cutting and quick response, is also compelling retailers to shift critical functions such as inventory management to these giant contract suppliers. China’s rise as an industrial power may further change global supply chain dynamics, with synergies arising from its supplier clusters, investment in the next generation of technologies, and the rapid growth of its domestic retail chains..Less
In this chapter, Appelbaum examines a subset of these contract manufacturers in greater detail. The increase in global sourcing by large retailers and merchandisers has given rise to a few giant transnational contractors, based primarily in Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea, and China, that operate factories throughout the world. The emergence of these giant transnational contractors portends a dramatic shift in the organizational power within global supply chains, which may provide a counterweight to the growing power of large retailers. Global supply networks have typically been buyerdriven, with large retailers and branded manufacturers playing the central role in their creation and coordination. Most of the contractors have been small, reinforcing their vulnerability to big buyers. However, this situation is changing with the emergence of large contract manufacturers. This chapter examines several examples of these giant contract manufacturers, including Nien Hsing Textiles, Li & Fung, and Yue Yuen/Pou Chen. Increasingly, large contractors, and not the retailers, manage the supply chain. Their emergence, along with the pressure of lean retailing for cost cutting and quick response, is also compelling retailers to shift critical functions such as inventory management to these giant contract suppliers. China’s rise as an industrial power may further change global supply chain dynamics, with synergies arising from its supplier clusters, investment in the next generation of technologies, and the rapid growth of its domestic retail chains..
Rudolf Adlung and Aaditya Mattoo
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780199235216
- eISBN:
- 9780191715624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199235216.003.0002
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
This chapter explains the basic structure of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and how it applies to measures that affect trade in services. Although a number of terms and concepts ...
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This chapter explains the basic structure of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and how it applies to measures that affect trade in services. Although a number of terms and concepts in the GATS have been borrowed from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) — the older agreement covering merchandise trade — there are important differences. That is, the GATS is more comprehensive in coverage, its definition of trade in services extends beyond the traditional notion of cross-border exchange to cover consumer movements and factor flows (investment and labor), and the reach of relevant disciplines is not confined to the treatment of products (i.e., services), but extends to measures affecting service suppliers (producers, traders, and distributors). The breadth in scope and coverage of the GATS contrasts with the flexibility of its rules. Unlike under the GATT, the use of quantitative restrictions is legitimate under the GATS unless explicitly foregone by the Member concerned, and national treatment is not a general obligation, but a negotiable commitment. Country specific schedules of commitments define the extent to which these rules apply to individual service sectors. There are no common templates. The chapter then discusses the achievements to date (or lack thereof) in the current Doha Round of services negotiations, with a focus on the issues especially from a developing-country perspective.Less
This chapter explains the basic structure of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), and how it applies to measures that affect trade in services. Although a number of terms and concepts in the GATS have been borrowed from the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) — the older agreement covering merchandise trade — there are important differences. That is, the GATS is more comprehensive in coverage, its definition of trade in services extends beyond the traditional notion of cross-border exchange to cover consumer movements and factor flows (investment and labor), and the reach of relevant disciplines is not confined to the treatment of products (i.e., services), but extends to measures affecting service suppliers (producers, traders, and distributors). The breadth in scope and coverage of the GATS contrasts with the flexibility of its rules. Unlike under the GATT, the use of quantitative restrictions is legitimate under the GATS unless explicitly foregone by the Member concerned, and national treatment is not a general obligation, but a negotiable commitment. Country specific schedules of commitments define the extent to which these rules apply to individual service sectors. There are no common templates. The chapter then discusses the achievements to date (or lack thereof) in the current Doha Round of services negotiations, with a focus on the issues especially from a developing-country perspective.
Hiroyuki Odagiri
- Published in print:
- 1994
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198288732
- eISBN:
- 9780191596711
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198288735.003.0006
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, South and East Asia
This chapter discusses several aspects of intra‐ and inter‐company organization in Japan. The divisional form (or M‐form) is less prevalent and less complete in Japan than in the USA and the UK, but ...
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This chapter discusses several aspects of intra‐ and inter‐company organization in Japan. The divisional form (or M‐form) is less prevalent and less complete in Japan than in the USA and the UK, but hive‐off of some activities is common and increasing. This tendency, we argue, is consistent with the human management system of Japanese firms that aims at company‐wide interaction and utilization of human resources, and the acquisition of broad as well as deep skills. As regards the supplier‐assembler relationship (the so‐called vertical keiretsu relationship), we emphasize that the practice of continuous trading by no means implies lack of competition. In this long‐term relationship, which has been indispensable to Japanese production systems, such as the just‐in‐time and kanban methods, a price adjustment scheme has been in effect in order to share risks, to guarantee returns on innovation, and to maintain the competitiveness of the final product.Less
This chapter discusses several aspects of intra‐ and inter‐company organization in Japan. The divisional form (or M‐form) is less prevalent and less complete in Japan than in the USA and the UK, but hive‐off of some activities is common and increasing. This tendency, we argue, is consistent with the human management system of Japanese firms that aims at company‐wide interaction and utilization of human resources, and the acquisition of broad as well as deep skills. As regards the supplier‐assembler relationship (the so‐called vertical keiretsu relationship), we emphasize that the practice of continuous trading by no means implies lack of competition. In this long‐term relationship, which has been indispensable to Japanese production systems, such as the just‐in‐time and kanban methods, a price adjustment scheme has been in effect in order to share risks, to guarantee returns on innovation, and to maintain the competitiveness of the final product.
Simon Domberger
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780198774570
- eISBN:
- 9780191596148
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0198774575.003.0008
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Microeconomics
This chapter and the previous three consider the alternative means through which a contracting strategy is devised and implemented. Chapter 8 discusses the problems of organizational change ...
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This chapter and the previous three consider the alternative means through which a contracting strategy is devised and implemented. Chapter 8 discusses the problems of organizational change associated with the introduction of contracting out––problems that are frequently the major obstacles to structural adjustment. The different parts of the chapter are as follows: Contracting out and organizational change; Impact on staff; Clean break or negotiated transfer? Terms and conditions of transfer; TUPE––the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Act in the UK, which is an implementation of the European Community Acquired Rights Directive (ARD, 1977); Managing transition; and Impact on customers and suppliers.Less
This chapter and the previous three consider the alternative means through which a contracting strategy is devised and implemented. Chapter 8 discusses the problems of organizational change associated with the introduction of contracting out––problems that are frequently the major obstacles to structural adjustment. The different parts of the chapter are as follows: Contracting out and organizational change; Impact on staff; Clean break or negotiated transfer? Terms and conditions of transfer; TUPE––the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Act in the UK, which is an implementation of the European Community Acquired Rights Directive (ARD, 1977); Managing transition; and Impact on customers and suppliers.
Ronald Dore
- Published in print:
- 2000
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199240623
- eISBN:
- 9780191696848
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199240623.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Financial Economics
This is a book about Washington Consensus capitalism and the controversies its encroachment causes in Japan and Germany. Many people in both those countries share the assumptions dominant today in ...
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This is a book about Washington Consensus capitalism and the controversies its encroachment causes in Japan and Germany. Many people in both those countries share the assumptions dominant today in Britain and America that managers should be intent solely on creating shareholder value, and that shareholders' financial logic alone should determine who buys what company on the stock exchange. That way efficiency (and hence global welfare) will be maximized. Japanese and German advocates of full-bloodied market capitalism are not having it all their own way, however. In both countries there are articulate defenders of what they consider to be a better way of life, informed by a more human, more social-solidary, set of values. This book traces the debates which ensue on corporate governance, on worker rights, on supplier relations, on cartels and anti-trust, on pensions and welfare. It also analyses actual changes in economic behaviour — an essential means of sorting out a lot of the muddle and double-talk, not just in the internal debates themselves, but even more in the foreign reporting of them. These accounts of the battle for the national soul in Japan and Germany constitute a contribution to the ‘diversity of capitalism’ debate.Less
This is a book about Washington Consensus capitalism and the controversies its encroachment causes in Japan and Germany. Many people in both those countries share the assumptions dominant today in Britain and America that managers should be intent solely on creating shareholder value, and that shareholders' financial logic alone should determine who buys what company on the stock exchange. That way efficiency (and hence global welfare) will be maximized. Japanese and German advocates of full-bloodied market capitalism are not having it all their own way, however. In both countries there are articulate defenders of what they consider to be a better way of life, informed by a more human, more social-solidary, set of values. This book traces the debates which ensue on corporate governance, on worker rights, on supplier relations, on cartels and anti-trust, on pensions and welfare. It also analyses actual changes in economic behaviour — an essential means of sorting out a lot of the muddle and double-talk, not just in the internal debates themselves, but even more in the foreign reporting of them. These accounts of the battle for the national soul in Japan and Germany constitute a contribution to the ‘diversity of capitalism’ debate.
Richard Florida and Martin Kenney
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199248544
- eISBN:
- 9780191596155
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199248540.003.0011
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Microeconomics
Organizational theory has long held that it is difficult to transfer organizations from one environment to another and that organizations that are transferred will take on characteristics of the new ...
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Organizational theory has long held that it is difficult to transfer organizations from one environment to another and that organizations that are transferred will take on characteristics of the new environment. The authors argue that organizations have the capabilities and the resources to transfer and to some degree replicate key capabilities in a new environment, and further to alter those environments in light of their functional requirements. We explore the question of organizational transfer and replication through the lens of a specific class of transplant organizations—Japanese automotive assembly plants and their suppliers in the US. We believe that these transplant organizations provide an ideal case to explore such questions because they represent organizations which are being transferred from a supportive to a foreign environment. We find that these Japanese automotive transplants have effectively transferred and to some degree replicated key organizational forms and capabilities at both the intra‐ and inter‐organizational levels.Less
Organizational theory has long held that it is difficult to transfer organizations from one environment to another and that organizations that are transferred will take on characteristics of the new environment. The authors argue that organizations have the capabilities and the resources to transfer and to some degree replicate key capabilities in a new environment, and further to alter those environments in light of their functional requirements. We explore the question of organizational transfer and replication through the lens of a specific class of transplant organizations—Japanese automotive assembly plants and their suppliers in the US. We believe that these transplant organizations provide an ideal case to explore such questions because they represent organizations which are being transferred from a supportive to a foreign environment. We find that these Japanese automotive transplants have effectively transferred and to some degree replicated key organizational forms and capabilities at both the intra‐ and inter‐organizational levels.
