Documents industrial organization 46 results

"The French apparel industry has always had a distinctive industrial organization based on agglomeration economies of common skills and the need for direct coordination among fashion designers, manufacturers, suppliers and buyers. Often referred to as ‘garment districts', these local clusters of apparel-related firms were dominated by small and medium-sized (SMEs) firms until the 1960s when mass markets encouraged the development of large firms using mass production methods and hierarchical contracting with smaller suppliers. Since the 1980s, delocalization of production along with dramatic changes in apparel retailing have almost completely destroyed large manufacturers and their hierarchical contracting arrangements. What remains is an industry in which SMEs are largely the survivors. While many of these firms remain marginal, there is a significant core that is developing new business strategies, more diversified competencies and new types of horizontal production networks. This paper examines the recent evolution of the French apparel industry from district to network forms of organization in two of France's main apparel and knitwear regions, based upon nearly 20 years of field research. This research identifies a set of countervailing factors to global outsourcing in which SMEs can have a competitive advantage."

"Over the past decade, the "German Model" of industrial organization has been the subject of vigorous debate among social scientists and historians, especially in comparison to the American one. Is a "Rhenish capitalism" still viable at the beginning of the 21st century and does it offer a road to the New Economy different from the one, in which the standards are set by the U.S.? The author, one of Germany's leading economic historians, analyzes the special features of the German path to the New Economy as it faces the American challenge. He paints a fascinating picture of Germany Inc. and looks at the durability of some of its structures and the mentalities that undergird it. He sees a "culture clash" and argues against an underestimation of the dynamics of the German industrial system. A provocative book for all interested in comparative economics and those who have been inclined to dismiss the German Model as outmoded and weak."

Il y a peu de temps encore, la montée du chômage et l'incapacité apparente de l'économie allemande à retrouver ses niveaux de performance passées, ont laissé d'aucuns penser que le capitalisme rhénan avait vécu. Pourtant, les institutions sur lesquelles repose le modèle économique d'outre-Rhin n'ont rien perdu de leur efficacité. En réalité, plutôt qu'au triomphe annoncé des méthodes anglo-saxonnes, il semble que nous assistions désormais à un retour en grâce du capitalisme partenarial et «concurrencialiste » germanique.