Abstract
At the beginning of the 1980s, a reverse trend in local economic development began, supporting old urban industrial areas in whichlarge firms represented the most competitive territorial and industrial systems. Using the case of the automobile industry as an example, this paper argues that contrary to what is anticipated by some researchers, the new flexible organization of the large firm will support neither an asymmetrical relationship of control between spatially decentralized firms nor a spatial reconcentration of activities toward industrialized countries. On the contrary, flexible production will support symmetrical networks that bind together spatially decentralized firms in a web of two-way partnership interactions. As space reflects changes in the organization of production, we anticipate greater coordination and interaction between spaces. This process would not be determined, butfacilitated by electronic linkages through technologies such as international EDI systems and groupware designed to increase cooperative work and joint decision-making.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abernathy WJ, Clark KB, Kantrow AM (1981) The new industrial competition. Harvard Bus Rev 59:68–88
Altshuler A, et al. (1985) The future of the automobile: the report of MIT's International Automobile Program. MIT Press, Cambridge
Amin A (1989) A model of the small firm in Italy. In: Goodman E, Bamford J (eds) Small firms and industrial districts in Italy. Routledge, London
Atkinson J (1986) Employment flexibility in internal and external labour markets. Institute for Manpower Studies, University of Sussex
Boyton AC (1993) Achieving dynamic stability through information technology. Calif Manag Rev 35:58–77
Camagni R, Capello R (1990) Towards a definition of the manoeuvring space of local initiatives: Italian success stories of local development — theoretical conditions and practical experiences. In: Stohr W (ed) Global challenge and local response. Mansell, London
Capello R (1994) Towards new industrial and spatial systems: the role of new technologies. Pap Reg Sci 73:189–208
Capello R, Gillespie A (1994) Communication infrastructure and possible future spatial scenarios. In: Cuadrado-Roura JR, Nijkamp P, Salva P (eds) Moving frontiers: economic restructuring, regional development and emerging networks. Avebury Ashgate Publishing Limited, England
Carlsson B (1989) The evolution of manufacturing technology and its impact on industrial structure: an international study. Small Bus Econ 1:21–37
Cash JI, Konsynski B (1985) IS redraws competitive boundaries. Harvard Bus Rev 85:134–142
Ching C, Holsapple CW, Whinston AB (1992) Modeling network organizations: a basis for exploring computer support coordination possibilities. Management Science and Information Systems, The University of Texas at Austin
Clark K (1989) Project scope and project performance: the effect of parts strategy and supplier involvement on product development. Manag Sci 35:1247–1262
Cusumano MA (1985) The Japanese automobile industry: technology and management at Nissan and Toyota. Council on East Asian Studies, Harvard University
Dertouzos ML, Lester RK, and Solow RM (1989) Made in America. MIT Press, Cambridge
Eaton BC, Schmitt N (1994) Flexible manufacturing and market structure. Am Econ Rev 84:875–888
Echeverri-Carroll EL (1994) Flexible linkages and offshore assembly facilities in developing countries. Int Reg Sci Rev 17:49–73
Echeverri-Carroll EL (1995) Flexible production and the North American Free Trade Agreement — the impact on US and Japanese maquiladoras. In: Echeverri-Carroll EL (ed) NAFTA and trade liberalization in the Americas. Bureau of Business Research, The University of Texas at Austin
Echeverri-Carroll EL, Hansen N (1994) Flexible suppliers and the creation and stability of US employment: the case of the automobile industry. Report prepared for the US Department of Labor, Washington, DC
Echeverri-Carroll EL, Whinston A (1994) Information technology support for flexible supply systems: the case of the automobile industry in the United States. Report prepared for the IC2 Institute, The University of Texas at Austin
Emmelhainz MA (1990) Electronic Data Interchange: a total management guide. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York
Estall RC (1985) Stock control in manufacturing: the just-in-time system and its locational implications. Area 17:129–133
Estrin DL (1985) Inter-organizational networks: stringing wires across administrative boundaries. Comput Net ISDN Sys 9:281–295
Ettlinger N (1992) Nodes of corporate organization and geography of development. Pap Reg Sci: J RSAI 2:107–126
Gillespie A, Williams H (1988) Telecommunications and the reconstruction of regional comparative advantages. Environ Plan A 20:1311–1321
Glasmeier AK, McCluskey RE (1987) US auto production: an analysis of the organization and location of a changing industry. Econ Geogr 63:142–159
Gottesman K (1991) JIT manufacturing is more than inventory programs and delivery schedules. Indust Eng 23:19–21
Grunwald J, Flamm K (1985) The global factory. The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC
Gupta YP, Neel GA (1992) The origin of EDI and its implementation. Ind Eng 24:25–29
Haeckel SH, Nolan RL (1993) Managing by wire. Harvard Bus Rev 71:122–132
Hall RW (1983) Zero Inventories. Dow Jones-Irwin, Homewood
Hansen N (1988) Regional consequences of structural changes in the national and international division of labor. Int Reg Sci Rev 11:121–136
Hansen N (1992) Competition, trust, and reciprocity in the development of innovative regional milieux. Pap Reg Sci 71:95–105
Helper S (1989) Strategy and irreversibility in supplier relations: the case of the US automobile industry. Department of Operations Management, Boston University
Helper S (1990) Comparative supplier relations in the US and Japanese auto industries: an exit/voice approach. Bus Econ His 19:153–162
Helper S (1991) How much has really changed between US automakers and their suppliers? Sloan Manag Rev 32:15–28
Helper S (1993) Supplier relations in the US and Canadian automotive industries: results of the 1993 International Motor Vehicle Program survey. International Motor Vehicle Program, MIT, Cambridge
Hepworth ME (1986) The geography of technological change in the information economy. Reg Stud 20:407–424
Hepworth ME (1987) Information technologies as spatial systems. Prog Hum Geogr 11:157–180
Hepworth ME (1990) Geography of the information economy. The Gulford Press, New York
Hoffman K, Kaplinsky R (1988) Driving force: the global restructuring of technology, labour, and investment in the automobile and components industries. West View Press, Boulder, CO
Holmes J (1986) Industrial change in the Canadian automotive products industry, 1973 – 1984: the impact of technical change in the organization and locational structure of automobile production. Department of Geography, Queens University, Ontario, Canada
Holusha J (1994) Industry is learning to love agility. The New York Times, May 25:C1, C5
Hudson R, Sadler D (1992) “Just-in-time” production and the European automotive components industry. Int J Physical Distr & Log Manag 22:40–45
Johanson J, Mattsson LG (1987) Interorganizational relations in industrial systems: a network approach compared with the transaction-cost approach. Int Stud Manag and Organization 17:34–48
Kaplinsky R, Cooper C (1989) Technology and development in the third industrial revolution. Frank Cass, Savage, MD
Kenney M, Florida R (1992) The Japanese transplants — production organization and regional development. J Am Plan Assoc 58:21–38
Kirkpatrick D (1992) Here comes the payoff from PCs: network software and groupware holds promise of enhancing corporate productivity. Fortune 125:93–99
Kirkpatrick D (1993) Groupware goes boom. Fortune 128:99–103
Konsynski BR (1993) Strategic control in the extended enterprise. IBM Syst J 32:111–142
Konsynski BR, McFarlan FW (1990) Information partnerships — shared data, shared scale. Harvard Bus Rev 68:114–120
Krafcik JF (1990) The effect of design manufacturability on productivity and quality: an update of the IMVP assembly plant study. Working paper. International Motor Vehicle Program, MIT, Cambridge
Krafcik JF, MacDuffie JP (1989) Explaining high performance manufacturing: the international automotive assembly plant study. Working paper. International Motor Vehicle Program, MIT, Cambridge
Lambarts PJ (1992) Electronic Data Interchange. Center for the Study of Data Processing, Washington University, St. Louis, MO
Lamming RC (1987) The international automotive components industry: customer-supplier relationships: past, present, and future. Working paper. International Motor Vehicle Program, MIT, Cambridge
Lim L, Fong PE (1991) Foreign investment and industrialization in Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Thailand. Development Centre of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Paris, France
Linge GJR (1992) Just-in time: More or less flexible? Econ Geogr 67:316–332
Mair A, Florida R, Kenney M (1988) The new geography of automobile production: Japanese transplants in North America. Econ Geogr 64:352–373
Malecki E (1991) Technology and economic development. Longman Scientific & Technical. Copublished in the US with John Wiley & Sons, Inc, New York
Manzi J (1994) Computer keiretsu: Japanese idea, US style. The New York Times, February 6:F 15
Milgrom P, Roberts J (1990) The economics of modern manufacturing: technology, strategy, and organization. Am Econ Rev 6:511–528
Nijkamp P, Salomon I (1989) Future spatial impact of telecommunication. Transpl Plan Techn 13:275–287
Nishiguchi T (1987) Competing systems of automotive components supply: an examination of the Japanese “clustered control” model and the “Alps” structure. International Motor Vehicle Program, MIT, Cambridge
Piore MJ, Sabel CF (1984) The second industrial divide. Basic Books, New York
Sadler D (1994) The geographies of just-in-time: Japanese investment and the automobile components industry in Western Europe. Econ Geogr 70:41–59
Sanderson SW (1986) American industry can go home again. Acr Board 23:38–43
Sanderson SW (1987) Automated manufacturing and offshore assembly in Mexico. In: Feinberg RE, Kallab V (eds) The United States and Mexico face to face with new technology. US Third World Policy Perspectives No. 8. Overseas Development Council. Transaction Books, New Brunswick, NJ
Sanderson SW, Williams G, Ballenger T, Berry BL (1986) Impacts of computer-aided manufacturing on offshore assembly and future manufacturing locations. Reg Stud 21:131–142
Sayer A (1985) New developments in manufacturing and their spatial implications. Working paper 49. School of Urban and Regional Studies, University of Sussex, Brighton, England
Sayer A, Walker R (1992) The new social economy: reworking the division of labor. Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, MA
Schoenbeger E (1987) Technological and organizational changes in automobile production: spatial implications. Reg Stud 21:199–214
Schoenbeger E (1988) From Fordism to flexible accumulation: technology, competitive strategies, and international location. Environment and Planning D: Soc Space 6:245–262
Schonberger R (1982) Japanese manufacturing: nine hidden lessons in simplicity. Free Press, New York
Schonberger R (1986) World manufacturing: the lessons of simplicity applied. Free Press, New York
Schonberger R (1990) Building a chain of customers: linking business functions to create a world class company. Free Press, New York
Sheard P (1983) Auto production systems in Japan: organizational and locational features. Austral Geogr Stud 21:49–68
Smitka M (1989) Competitive ties: subcontracting in the Japanese automobile industry. PhD dissertation, Yale University, New Haven, CT
Storper M, Christopherson S (1987) Flexible specialization and regional industrial agglomerations: the case of the US motion picture industry. Ann Assoc Am Geogr 77:104–117
Vernon R (1966) International investment and international trade in the product cycle. Quart J Econ 80:190–207
Wilson P (1992) Exports and local development: Mexico's new maquiladoras. University of Texas Press, Austin
Womack JP, Jones D, Roos D (1990) The machine that changed the world. Rawson Associates, New York
Zipkin PH (1991) Does manufacturing need a JIT revolution? Harvard Bus Rev 69:40–46
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The author is indebted to the Bureau of Business Research in the Graduate School of Business of the University of Texas at Austin and to the Foreign Economic Research Office of the United States Department of Labor in Washington, D.C. for financial support. This paper benefited from helpful comments from an unknown referee.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Echeverri-Carroll, E.L. Flexible production, electronic linkages, and large firms: evidence from the automobile industry. Ann Reg Sci 30, 135–152 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01580541
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01580541