Does nationality continue to matter?

Our study of the evolution of Japanese and US production networks in theelectronics industry in East Asia in the 1990s has enabled us to identify how various forces that we associate with globalization—technological change, technology transfer, the shortening of product life cycles, trade liberalization, and the development of local centers of expertise—have shaped corporate decision-making. By focusing on change in one sector over a period...

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The impact of the Asian financial crises

How have the financial crises that beset East Asia in 1997–8 affected the evolution of IPNs in electronics? It is too soon to discern the longer term effects that the crises may have on the evolution of local industries. Some immediateeffects that may have an impact over the medium term are, however, apparent. Most worrisome is a significant erosion of the region’s small and medium-sized suppliers  Global OEM customers such as Compaq...

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Imitation and convergence

A final reason for the gradual opening-up of Japanese production networks is that some Japanese firms have consciously set out to imitate what they perceive to be successful strategies by their American counterparts. This desire for emulation not only characterizes the large, diversified business groups like Matsushita, Hitachi, Toshiba, NEC and Fujitsu but also medium-sized companies that have become global competitors like Kyocera, Canon,...

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MNC affiliate behavior in Malaysia

In this section, we will review the available data on affiliate behaviors on five dimensions: linkages to local firms, human resources development, higher valueadded activities, capital deepening, and management autonomy. Each subsection will provide background on relevant Malaysian policies, after which the available evidence will be used to provide a preliminary evaluation of the hypothesis of national differences between investors. Capital...

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Explaining national differences in production networks

Why did such significant differences exist between Japanese and US production networks in the first half of the 1990s? Social scientists naturally assume that organizations, including firms, adopt policies that enable them to pursue their goals in an efficient manner. A large literature, however, warns us against such assumptions Historical accidents and path dependency are pervasive. Such factors certainly played a role in the differences...

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The opening up of Japanese production networks

Some of the observed differences in organization of production networks are explained by the very different product mix that Japanese and American electronics firms  shifted to Asia. From the late 1960s, American firms in Asia concentrated on ICs and PC-related products, whereas Japanese firms, almost without exception, focused on lower end consumer electronics and related components. Microprocessors and PCrelated products are highly differentiated...

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Competitive performance of US versus Japanese electronics firms

As argued by Michael Borrus in older article, the different production network strategies of US and Japanese electronics firms in East Asia are likely to have had a causal impact on their global competitive performance. Although it is not possible to make causal inferences about competitive performance at the global level from financial performance at the level of subsidiary operations in Singapore, it is interesting to note that US electronics...

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