German and Japanese Business in the Boom Years / Edition 1

by Matthias Kipping, Akira Kudo, Harm G. Schröter

Overview

This edited volume examines the American influence on West German and Japanese industry from the 1950s to the 1970s, providing a valuable contribution to the debate on 'Americanization' from a historical and comparative perspective. Individual contributions provide an in-depth analysis of the adoption and modification of management and technological issues from the US in West Germany and Japan at the micro-economic level.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138864023
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/09/2015
Series:	Routledge International Studies in Business History
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

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 teaches 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 (eg multinational enterprise, innovation) and countries (eg state-industry realations).

Table of Contents

List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Preface
List of abbreviations
1: Americanisation: historical and conceptual issues
Akira Kudo, Matthias Kipping and Harm G. Schroter
2: 'Importing' American ideas to West Germany, 1940s to 1970s: from associations to private consultancies
Matthias Kipping
3: Paths to Americanisation in post-war Japan
Satoshi Sasaki
4: Driving the West German consumer society: the introduction of US-style production and marketing at Volkswagen, 1945-70
Christian Kleinschmidt
5: Americanisation with the Japanese supplier system in the Japanese automobile industry, 1950-65
Hiorfumi Ueda
6: The Americanisation of the German electrical industry after 1945: Siemens as a case study
Wilfried Feldenkirchen
7: The Americanisation and Japanisation of electronics firms in post-war Japan
Shin Hasegawa
8: America and the resurgence of the German chemical and rubber industry after the Second World War: Huls, Glanzstoff and Continental
Christian Kleinschmidt
9: The Americanisation of technologies and management in Japan and its multiple effects: the case of Toray
Tsuneo Suzuki
10: Reluctant Americanisation? The reaction of Henkel to the influences and competition from the United States
Susanne Hilger
11: Emerging post-war-type managers and their learning of American technology and management: the consumer chemicals industry and the case of Kao
Akira Judo and Motoi Ihara
12: 'Revolution in trade': the Americanisation of distribution in Germany during the boom years, 1949-75
Harm G. Schroter
13: American influencesand Japanese innovation in the distribution industry: changes of supermarket system from the 1950s until the 1970s
Mika Takaoka and Takeo Kikkawa

Editorial Reviews

'The three editors of this volume ... [contribute] ... extensively to the debate, utilizing their extensive research experience to illuminate the issues effectively and imaginatively.' - Economic History Society

'A highly useful collection of essays that have undoubtedly extended our understanding of an issue that will continue to generte debate among academics, managers, and policy-makers.' - Economic History Society

From the Publisher