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Branch Plants (branch + plant)
Selected AbstractsHybrid Branch Plants: Japanese Lean Production in Poland's Automobile IndustryECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2008Tomasz Majek Abstract This article examines hybrid branch plants created by an interaction of the routines and conventions of the parent company with those of local institutions. We argue that hybridization is a search for an appropriate mix of practices that ensure viability in local circumstances, rather than necessarily the transfer of established "best" (parent-company) practices. Conceptually, hybridization is interpreted as learning-based (and bargaining) processes that are inherent in the evolution (internationalization) of firms in which alternative trajectories are possible. Empirically, the article examines the recent transfer of lean production to Poland's automobile industry and comparatively and qualitatively analyzes four hybrid branch plants in terms of six dimensions of shop-floor and factory management. Given the explosion of Japanese foreign direct investment in recent decades, its competitive strengths, and the importance that Japanese firms attach to learning processes, lean production is an important case study for hybridization. The four cases illustrate different types of hybrid behavior with different consequences for corporate and local performance. [source] Extraregional Linkages and the Territorial Embeddedness of Multinational Branch Plants: Evidence from the South Tyrol Region in Northeast ItalyECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2006Markus Perkmann Abstract: This article reevaluates the regional embeddedness of multinational manufacturing branch plants in view of recent work on global production networks and extraregional links. It argues that the predominance of extraregional production linkages is not necessarily detrimental to regional economies and that such linkages can even compensate for weak territorial innovations systems in noncore regions. The arguments are supported by a case study of the South Tyrol region of Italy, using firm-level data from surveys and interviews, complemented by evidence on institutional conditions. The findings suggest that neither the branch plants nor the locally owned manufacturing firms are strongly embedded in the region in terms of material linkages and interorganizational relationships, indicating that the ownership status of firms is not a good predictor of embeddedness. Second, compared to local firms, branch plants are more innovative and hence contribute to a larger degree to regional upgrading processes. Third, South Tyrol's core institutional structures, such as those governing the labor force, play a decisive role in the competitiveness of branch plants and therefore create codependencies that bind these producers to the territory. The results suggest a more differentiated assessment of the role of branch plants within noncore regions. [source] Hybrid Branch Plants: Japanese Lean Production in Poland's Automobile IndustryECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 3 2008Tomasz Majek Abstract This article examines hybrid branch plants created by an interaction of the routines and conventions of the parent company with those of local institutions. We argue that hybridization is a search for an appropriate mix of practices that ensure viability in local circumstances, rather than necessarily the transfer of established "best" (parent-company) practices. Conceptually, hybridization is interpreted as learning-based (and bargaining) processes that are inherent in the evolution (internationalization) of firms in which alternative trajectories are possible. Empirically, the article examines the recent transfer of lean production to Poland's automobile industry and comparatively and qualitatively analyzes four hybrid branch plants in terms of six dimensions of shop-floor and factory management. Given the explosion of Japanese foreign direct investment in recent decades, its competitive strengths, and the importance that Japanese firms attach to learning processes, lean production is an important case study for hybridization. The four cases illustrate different types of hybrid behavior with different consequences for corporate and local performance. [source] Extraregional Linkages and the Territorial Embeddedness of Multinational Branch Plants: Evidence from the South Tyrol Region in Northeast ItalyECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 4 2006Markus Perkmann Abstract: This article reevaluates the regional embeddedness of multinational manufacturing branch plants in view of recent work on global production networks and extraregional links. It argues that the predominance of extraregional production linkages is not necessarily detrimental to regional economies and that such linkages can even compensate for weak territorial innovations systems in noncore regions. The arguments are supported by a case study of the South Tyrol region of Italy, using firm-level data from surveys and interviews, complemented by evidence on institutional conditions. The findings suggest that neither the branch plants nor the locally owned manufacturing firms are strongly embedded in the region in terms of material linkages and interorganizational relationships, indicating that the ownership status of firms is not a good predictor of embeddedness. Second, compared to local firms, branch plants are more innovative and hence contribute to a larger degree to regional upgrading processes. Third, South Tyrol's core institutional structures, such as those governing the labor force, play a decisive role in the competitiveness of branch plants and therefore create codependencies that bind these producers to the territory. The results suggest a more differentiated assessment of the role of branch plants within noncore regions. [source] Following America into the second industrial revolution: new rules of competition and Ontario's farm machinery industry, 1850,1930THE CANADIAN GEOGRAPHER/LE GEOGRAPHE CANADIEN, Issue 4 2002CORDON M. WINDER Despite the hiatus in farm expansion from 1880 to 1900, Canadian-owned Massey-Harris became a competitive multinational corporation as American branch plants arrived in Ontario. This equivocal performance in Canada's agricultural implements industry poses problems for explanations of Canada's branch plant economy. Most commentators blame an ill-conceived National Policy for promoting and protecting inefficient industry and frustrating industrial development. In reviewing their explanations, I use systematic comparisons among plants as well as between the Ontario, New York, Ohio, and Illinois industries. I argue that Canada's National Policy was an effective industrial policy that promoted competitive implement manufacture under the constraints of Victorian era technology. Problems emerged in the 1880s, however, as Chicago firms developed mass production in harvesting machinery, and these became entrenched as gasoline tractor development swept the industry after 1900. Ontario firms struggled, but they outperformed competitors in New York and Ohio, who had been industry leaders in] 880. Canada's branch plant economy in the farm machinery industry was made in Chicago and by mechanical engineers, not in Ottawa and by politicians. En dépit de l'hiatus dans l'expansion du pare agricole entre 1880 et 1900, la société canadienne Massey-Harris est devenue une grande société multinational compétitive lorsque des usines-succursales américaines ont fait leur arrivée en l'Ontario. Cette baisse de performance de I'Industrie canadienne de fabrication d'outils et d'engins agricoles pose des problèmes sur le plan de l'explication de l'économie des usines-succursales canadiennes. Pour la plupart des analystes, cette situation serait due à une politique nationals mal-conçue. Celle-ci aurait favorisé et protégé une Industrie inefficace, et ainsi frustré le développement industriel. En passant en revue ces analyses, je procède à une série de comparisons systématiques, d'une part des usines entre elles et, d'autre part, entre les industries de New York, de l'Ohio et de l'lllinois. J'avance que la Politique nationale canadienne etait une politique industrielle efficace qui a su promouvoir une Industrie de fabrication d'outils et d'engins agricoles compétitive dans le cadre de la technologie de l'époque victorienne et de ses contraintes. Des problèmes, qui ont fait leur apparition au cours des années 1880, suite à l'adoption par les sociétés de Chicago de la production de masse des moissonneuses, ont perduré suite à l'arrivée en masse des tracteurs à essence après 1900. Ce fut un moment très difficile pour les sociétés de l'Ontario mais elles réussirent à battre leurs concurrents de New York et de l'Ohio qui étaient leaders de l'industrie en 1880. Dans l'industrie des engins agricoles, le sort de l'économie des usines-succursales était décidéà Chicago, par des ingénieurs en mécanique agricole, non à Ottawa, par des hommes politiques. [source] | ||||||||||