Regional and Sectoral Development in Mexico as Alternatives to Migration by Sergio Díaz-Briquets & Sidney Weintraub

Author:Sergio Díaz-Briquets & Sidney Weintraub [Díaz-Briquets, Sergio & Weintraub, Sidney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781000273489
Google: ZgeiDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 49789204
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

Endogenous Firms14

We identified six endogenous, or locally owned electronics producers. Only one of these firms, Instrumentos Electrónicos Profesionales (IEP), has worked itself into the supplier network of the local multinational electronics firms. IEP sells manually assembled printed circuit boards, not only to its Mexican parent company, Mexel, but also to Tandem and Wang. Lack of capital keeps them from expanding into sophisticated surface mount technology as ADTEC and Kodak have. The remaining endogenous electronics producers, which sell only to domestic firms, include Logix, which was started by a local employee of IBM; Kitron, which is most like a Silicon Valley garage start-up firm; Infor Espacio, which designs and builds computer printers; and Wind, which builds its own brand of computers for the Mexican market. These firms do their own product design, buy almost totally foreign made parts and assemble them.

Kitron, for example, started up in 1980 with six local partners, four of whom work in the firm. The firm is a member of the Gimara National de La Industria Electrica y Electrónica (CANIECE). It has nearly 30 employees, 9 engineers in research and development, 10 production workers, 4 supervisors and 4 clerical staff in operations. It designs and assembles digital control instruments. Ten percent of its inputs are domestically manufactured metal housings in Mexico City. A total of 60 percent of its inputs are directly imported integrated circuits and switches. Another 30 percent—resistors and connectors—are bought through local distributors, although they are manufactured abroad. All the engineers were educated in Guadalajara, read English and follow the industry journals.

Microton, another local electronics start-up, was established in 1979 to design and assemble computer products. The firm imported 80 percent of its inputs directly and bought the remaining 20 percent through local distributors of foreign-made components. It was not a member of any industry association. In 1982, Microton tried to establish its own line of computers, but government red tape for importing equipment proved to be too complicated. The firm subsequently developed an inexpensive way to build a buffer multiplexor, which allows a computer to be used while its printer works. By December 1988, the owners were unable to find a firm willing to market their buffer in Mexico, and decided to close up the design and production activities altogether to become simply a computer service and software firm.

While the foreign-based electronics industry in Guadalajara is gradually networking within its own ranks through spinoffs, captive suppliers and joint ventures, there is a growing endogenous electronics industry that continues to source almost all inputs from abroad. It is almost totally unlinked to the foreign based electronics industry in Guadalajara.

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