German and Japanese business in the boom years: transforming American management and technology

305 Pages·2004·1.51 MB·English

by  Matthias Kipping, Akira Kudo, Harm G. Schröter

German and Japanese Business in
the Boom Years
During the twentieth century as a whole, the United States has been a reference
point for industrialized economies around the world. This volume examines the
American influence on two of the most important and dynamic economies in the
post war period, West German and Japanese, during the so-called boom years
(1950–1973).
Contributions to this volume analysis five different business sectors which
played an important role as engines of economic growth and also in the develop-
ment of the consumer society in both countries: automobiles, electrical engin-
eering and electronics, synthetic fibres and rubber, consumer chemicals and retail
trade. The paired case studies examine the process of introducing new technology
and management methods in each company and industry with respect to the
American influence. They look at possible Americanization across a wide variety of
functions, including R&D, production, sales and marketing, human resources and
finance. The book shows that the American models led to a transformation of
existing production and management systems which subsequently became the
core of the successful West German and Japanese models in the 1970s and the
1980s.
German and Japanese Business in the Boom Years makes an important contribution
to the debate on Americanization from a historical and comparative perspective
and will be essential reading for students and researchers of business and eco-
nomic history.
Akira Kudo is Professor at the Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo. His
interests cover modern German economic and business history and business and
economic relations between Japan and Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. He is the author of Japanese–German Business Relations (1998). Matthias
Kipping is Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He also
teaches at the University of Reading. He has written and published extensively on
the evolution of management consultancy and business education and on the
American influence on European business. Harm G. Schröter is Professor at the
University of Bergen in Norway. His main field of research is European economic
history from 1850 to the present day, including the level of firms (e.g. multi-
national enterprise, innovation) and countries (e.g. state–industry relations).
Routledge International Studies in Business History
Series editors: Geoffrey Jones and Mary Rose
1 Management, Education and Competitiveness
Europe, Japan and the United States
Edited by Rolv Petter Amdam
2 The Development of Accounting in an International Context
A Festschrift in Honour of R.H. Parker
T.E. Cooke and C.W. Nobes
3 The Dynamics of the Modern Brewing Industry
Edited by R.G. Wilson and T.R. Gourvish
4 Religion, Business and Wealth in Modern Britain
Edited by David Jeremy
5 The Multinational Traders
Geoffrey Jones
6 The Americanisation of European Business
Edited by Matthias Kipping and Ove Bjarnar
7 Region and Strategy
Business in Lancashire and Kansai 1890–1990
Douglas A. Farnie, David J. Jeremy, John F. Wilson, Nakaoka Tetsuro and
Abe Takeshi
8 Foreign Multinationals in the United States
Management and performance
Edited by Geoffrey Jones and Lina Galvez-Munoz
9 Co-operative Structures in Global Business
A new approach to networks, technology transfer agreements, strategic
alliances and agency relationships
Gordon H. Boyce
10 German and Japanese Business in the Boom Years
Transforming American management and technology models
Edited by Akira Kudo, Matthias Kipping and Harm G. Schröter
German and Japanese
Business in the Boom Years
Transforming American management
and technology models
Edited by Akira Kudo, Matthias Kipping
and Harm G. Schröter
First published 2004
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004.
© 2004 Editorial matter and selection, Akira Kudo, Matthias Kipping
and Harm G. Schröter; individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested
ISBN 0-203-64442-5 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-67525-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-28876-2 (Print Edition)
Contents
List of illustrations vii
Notes on contributors ix
Preface xii
List of abbreviations xiii
1 Americanization: historical and conceptual issues 1
A K I R A K U D O , M A T T H I A S K I P P I N G A N D
H A R M G . S C H R Ö T E R
2 ‘Importing’ American ideas to West Germany, 1940s to 1970s:
from associations to private consultancies 30
M A T T H I A S K I P P I N G
3 Paths to Americanization in postwar Japan 54
S A T O S H I S A S A K I
4 Driving the West German consumer society: the introduction
of US style production and marketing at Volkswagen,
1945–70 75
C H R I S T I A N K L E I N S C H M I D T
5 Americanization with the Japanese supplier system in the
Japanese automobile industry, 1950–65 93
H I R O F U M I U E D A
6 The Americanization of the German electrical industry after
1945: Siemens as a case study116
W I L F R I E D F E L D E N K I R C H E N
7 The Americanization and Japanization of electronics firms in
post-war Japan 138
S H I N H A S E G A W A
vi Contents
8 America and the resurgence of the German chemical and
rubber industry after the Second World War: Hüls,
Glanzstoff and Continental 161
C H R I S T I A N K L E I N S C H M I D T
9 The Americanization of technologies and management in
Japan and its multiple effects: the case of Toray175
T S U N E O S U Z U K I
10 Reluctant Americanization? The reaction of Henkel to the
influences and competition from the United States 193
S U S A N N E H I L G E R
11 Emerging postwar-type managers and their learning of
American technology and management: the consumer
chemicals industry and the case of Kao 221
A K I R A K U D O A N D M O T O I I H A R A
12 ‘Revolution in trade’: the Americanization of distribution in
Germanyduring the boom years, 1949–75 246
H A R M G . S C H R Ö T E R
13 American influences and Japanese innovation in the
distribution industry: changes of supermarket system from
the 1950s until the 1970s 268
M I K A T A K A O K A A N D T A K E O K I K K A W A
Index 283
Illustrations
Figures
10.1 Henkel-Persil GmbH, 1964 208
10.2 Henkel GmbH, divisional organization, 1969 209
11.1 Production of soap and synthetic detergent in Japan,
1945–75 229
11.2 Market share of synthetic detergent in Japan, 1960–76 239
Tables
2.1 Expansion of US consultancies to Western Europe during
the 1960s 45
3.1 Number of approvals for Class I technology transfer by
industry, 1949–61 65
3.2 Number of approvals for Class I technology transfer by
country of origin, 1949–61 66
3.3 Production values, export values and technology
payment values resulting from technology transfer in the
machinery industry 67
3.4 Production values, export values and technology
payment values resulting from technology transfer in the
electrical machinery sector 69
4.1 The West German automobile market in the 1950s 87
4.2 VW exports into the USA 87
5.1 Types of parts suppliers in the 1980s 95
5.2 Major automobile-producing countries, 1945–65 96
5.3 Establishing companies of auto parts manufacturing
companies 98
5.4 Domestic production of TMC 103
5.5 Five-year plan for modernization 105
5.6 TMMC suppliers 106
5.7 Employees of Toyota’s suppliers 108
5.8 Suppliers in the 1950s 109
viii Illustrations
5.9 Mizushima works 112
9.1 Top ten exporting products from Japan (in US$ million) 177
9.2 Top ten destinations of export from Japan (in US$ million) 178
9.3 Number of agreements on importing technologies into
Japan (by provider nations) 179
9.4 Number of agreements on importing technologies into
Japan (by industry) 181
10.1 Advertising slogans broadcast on New York’s TV channels,
1964 203
13.1 Sales figures, employees and floor space in supermarkets 270
13.2 Retailer share of consumer expenditure, by items (per
cent) 271
13.3 Main members of Pegasus Club in 1962 273
Contributors
Wilfried Feldenkirchen was born in 1947 in Cologne and studied history,
economics and English literature. He holds the Chair of economic,
social and business history at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg.
He has written numerous books and articles on business, economic and
social history. A two-volume history on Daimler-Benz is about to be pub-
lished.
Shin Hasegawa is Professor at the Faculty of Business Administration,
Aoyama Gakuin University. He specializes in the business and eco-
nomic history of modern Japan, focusing on the electrical and electron-
ics industry. He wrote extensively in the field and co-authored Modern
Japanese Economy (in Japanese, Tokyo, 1999).
Susanne Hilger is Assistant Professor in Economic, Social and Business
History at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg. She did her PhD on
welfare policy in the German iron and steel industry before the Second
World War and is currently researching business strategies in the
German consumer industries after the Second World War. She has
recently finished a study on the Americanization of German industry
after 1945.
Motoi Ihara is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics, University
of Saitama. His dissertation presented at the University of Tokyo ana-
lyzed the Asian strategy of Kao Corp., a leading Japanese chemical con-
sumer maker. He has also published several papers on the same topic
in Japan Business History Review and other journals.
Takeo Kikkawa is Professor at the Institute of Social Science, University of
Tokyo. His work covers numerous aspects of business history in modern
Japan. His main work is The Development of Japanese Electricity Industry and
Yasuzaemon Matsunaga (in Japanese, Nagoya, 1995). He also co-edited
Policies for Competitiveness (Oxford, 1999).
Matthias Kipping is Associate Professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra in
Barcelona. He also has a part-time appointment at the University of