Japanese Participation in British Industry by Dunning John;

Author:Dunning, John;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Economics, Finance, Business & Industry
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2010-09-07T00:00:00+00:00

Like the affiliates, the suppliers also fall neatly into two groups: (i) those supplying the consumer and industrial electronics companies (10), and (ii) those supplying Group 2 affiliates (10). All the suppliers most dependent on Japanese affiliates are of Group 1 variety, and it is they which have been most affected by the Japanese presence.

Some 60% of the suppliers thought that their sales to Japanese affiliates were, at least partly, an addition to their output, and 40% that they replaced output which in any case would have been produced. Six of the suppliers to CTV assemblers asserted that, while output sold to Japanese customers had been partly at the expense of that sold to indigenous competitors, part represented a net increase in output, due inter alia to a fall in the share of imported CTV sets from Japan.

In general, suppliers perceived that the output demanded by Japanese affiliates required similar production methods to that produced for other suppliers. However, six of the 20 suppliers (30%)—including four of the ten Group 1 suppliers—thought that as a result of their dealing with Japanese customers, they had upgraded and/or made a greater use of skilled labour; and two had made less use of unskilled labour. The majority of suppliers also accepted that Japanese sourcing methods had had an impact on their productive efficiency, mainly by assisting quality control and testing procedures. Overall, 11 of the suppliers thought their contact with the Japanese affiliates had been beneficial to their company’s objectives, compared with a similar association with UK firms; six that it had had no effect; and three that the effect had been less beneficial.

In answer to a rather wider question, ‘Are you generally satisfied with the results of your dealing with Japanese affiliates in the UK?’ 18 of the 20 companies answered ‘Yes’ and only one plastic moulding firm and one steel tube manufacturer answered ‘No’.3

The main reasons for the two negative answers, which were also cited by an electronics components and a paper board manufacturer who gave a qualified ‘Yes’, were that Japanese affiliates insisted on (what they perceived to be) unnecessarily high quality and rigorous standards, were unrealistically tight on their pricing policies, and tended to impose excessive compensation claims for rejects. These criticisms were also voiced in a wider context by suppliers; basically, they reflect the belief that the Japanese managers of affiliates often try and improve on the standards expected by their parent companies, and that they make insufficient allowance for (a) volume differences for orders placed in Japan and the UK and the effect this has on pricing policy, and (b) differences in Japanese and British consumer perception towards quality.4

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.