International Manufacturing Strategies

Over the last 20 years, there has been an increasing number of factors that have placed the manufacturing strategies of companies and countries in a global context. This book reviews and addresses the global manufacturing strategy area through research in the four major economic areas of the world: Europe, North America, Latin America and Asia. It is the result of a single major research project undertaken in 20 countries, focusing on the manufacturing strategies and practices in each, and uses research data to focus on factors specific to industrial countries or regions and those which are common across the group of countries or the entire sample. The core of this book is a set of chapters reviewing individual countries. Each country is reviewed in a format with an overall common approach: the socio-economic background; the distinctive results for that country from the research; and the link between the two. Most are illustrated by a small case study of a company.