Mutual Adaptation: Japanese Automobile Transplants in North America and the Restructuring of Buyer-Supplier Relations (original) (raw)

This paper,examines,how,the arrival and expansion,of Japanese,automotive assemblers in North America during the 1980s and 1990s, has been character- ized by a complex,process of mutual adaptation by both the transplant assem- blers and North American suppliers. It argues that despite the arguments,that globalization is necessarily associated with a convergence,in supply-manage- ment practices, Japanese assemblers generally remain more committed to long-term supplier development ,and ,technical assistance and ,are less price focused than their North American counterparts. Nonetheless, I argue that a hybrid system,is emerging in which the Japanese have modified some,of their strategies to the more,adversarial and price oriented systems,which character- ize North America. The second ,half of the ,paper ,examines ,Canadian-based supplier relations with the transplants and ,concludes ,that despite the emer- gence of a core of large R&D intensive Canadian suppliers, most remain smaller an...