The social organization of production, competitive advantage and foreign investment: American automobile companies in the 1920s and Japanese automobile companies in the 1980s

This paper compares the establishment of American assembly plants in Europe during the 1920s and the establishment of Japanese assembly plants in North America during the 1980s. It argues that these were similar in a number of respects, most importantly that the basis of the American advantage of the 1920s and the Japanese advantage of the 1980s was, in fact, the same, namely, a specific social organization of production: Fordism for American companies and ‘lean production’ for Japanese companies. It is also shown that the same factors which obstructed the dissemination of Fordism in Europe during the 1920s, the resistance of management and labor, have obstructed the dissemination of the Japanese system in North America during the 1980s. The concluding section argues that the general trajectory of American automobile companies in Europe during the 1930s may provide insights into the general trajectory of Japanese companies in the US during the 1990s. © 1994 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC