Abstract
Japanese car makers were able dramatically to expand their share of the US car market in the seventies and eighties. This was partly the result of their own efforts and partly fortuitous. This paper examines why the US car makers of this period were vulnerable and how the Japanese were able to exploit their own technical and organisational strengths. An understanding of this key period in the history of Detroit's ‘Big Three’ indicates why some two decades later the US companies found themselves on the brink of corporate ruin.
Keywords
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Abernathy
W.
Clark
Kenneth
(1982 ) ‘Notes on a trip to Japan: Concept and interpretations' , in
Cole
R.
(ed.) Industry at the Crossroads , University of Michigan Press , Ann Arbor, Michigan , pp. 53 –77 .
2.Automotive News , various years.
3.
Berggren
C.
(1993 ) ‘Lean production — The end of history?’ , Work, Employment and Society , 7 (2 ), pp. 163 –188 .
4.
Brooks
D.
(2009 ) ‘Car dealer in chief’ , New York Times , 31 March, available: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/opinion/31brooks.html [accessed 1 April 2009].
5.
Cusumano
M.
(1985 ), The Japanese Automobile Industry , Harvard University Press , Cambridge, Mass .
6.
Economist, The
(2009 ) ‘Toyota slips up’ , December 15, reprinted in Financial Express , available: http://www.financialexpress.com/news/toyota-slips-up/554056/0 [accessed 10 September 2010].
7.
Holweg
M.
(2007 ) ‘The genealogy of lean production’ , Journal of Operations Management
25 (2 ), pp. 420 –437 .
8.
Krafcik
J.
(1988 ) ‘Triumph of the lean production system’ . Sloan Management Review , 30 (1 ), pp. 41 –52 .
9.
Grossman
S.
Hart
O.
(1986 ) ‘The costs and benefits of ownership: A theory of vertical integration’ , Journal of Political Economy , 94 (4 ), pp. 691 –719 .
10.
Halberstam
D.
(1986 ), The Reckoning , William Morrow and Company , New York .
11.
Kline
M.
(1980 ), Mathematics and the Loss of Certainty , Oxford University Press , Oxford .
12.
Rae
J.
(1982 ), Nissan/Datsun — A History of Nissan Motor Corporation in the USA 1960–1980 , McGraw Hill , New York .
13.
Reich
R.
Donohue
J.
(1985 ), New Deals — The Chrysler Revival and the American System , New York Times Books , New York .
14.
Rothschild
Emma
(1974 ), Paradise Lost: The Decline of the Auto-Industrial Age , Random House , New York .
15.
Sakiya
T.
(1982 ) Honda Motor: The Men, The Management, The Machines . Kodansha International , Tokyo .
16.
Schelling
T.
(1984 ), Choices and Consequences , Harvard University Press, Cambridge , Mass .
17.
Schumpeter
Joseph
(1975 ), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy , Harper , New York .
18.
Sloan
A.
(1964 ), My Years With General Motors , Doubleday , New York .
19.
Tabuchi
H.
Maynard
M.
(2009 ) ‘President of Toyota apologizes' , New York Times , 3 October, available: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/03/business/global/03toyota.html?_r=1 [accessed 1 September 2010].
20.‘Toyota and Honda hit the brakes with recall of 2.5 million cars' (2010 ) Drive, The Age , 31 January, available: http://theage.drive.com.au/motor-news/toyota-and-honda-hit-the-brakes-with-recall-of-25-million-cars-20100202-n99q.html [accessed 30 September 2010].
21.
Train
K.
Winston
C.
(2007 ) ‘Vehicle choice behavior and the declining market share of U.S. automakers' , 48 (4 ), pp. 1469 –1496 .
22.Wall Street Journal (1988 ) 16 January.
23.
Williamson
O.
(1985 ), The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets Relational Contracting , The Free Press , New York .
24.
Womack
J.
Jones
D.
Roos
D.
(1990 ), The Machine that Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production , Rawson Associates , New York .
25.
Wright
J.
(1979 ), On A Clear Day You Can See General Motors , Wright Enterprises, Grosse Pointe , Michigan .
26.
Yates
B.
(1983 ), The Decline and Fall of the American Automobile Industry , Empire Books , New York .