This exploratory paper deals with some basic concepts of architectural strategy, or application of the concept of architecture to strategic management, as well as the issue of measuring architecture. First, the paper discusses definitions and types of product architecture, including integral,...

Along with the process of economic reform and policy of opening to the outside world, China's auto industry has come to a point of new development. Since the manufacturing technology of cars is much more complicated than that of commercial vehicles, China has adopted a different strategy to...

This paper describes an interview with Eiji Toyoda, former president and chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation, who has been engaged in the company's automobile manufacturing business since its beginning in the 1930s. The interview covers some important topics for the sources and developments of...

This paper analyzes the modularization in the world auto industry. The modularization in the industry has involved architectural changes in product, production, and supplier systems with each region (Japan, Europe and the U.S.A.) emphasizing different purposes and aspects. As an attempt to...

Based on the framework of design-based comparative advantage, in which the dynamic fit between the organizational capabilities of manufacturing sites and the architectures of products and processes affects the competitiveness of the sites and industries, the paper describes and analyzes various...

Annabelle Gawer presents cutting-edge contributions from 24 top international scholars from 19 universities across Europe, the USA and Asia, from the disciplines of strategy, economics, innovation, organization studies and knowledge management. The novel insights assembled in this volume...

In view of the unprecedented devastation of the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE), the psychological overreaction tends to emphasize the safety aspects at the expense of the basic principle of designing industrial supply chains that achieve competitiveness and robustness simultaneously....

Based on clinical field research data, this paper explores emerging patterns of automobile distribution in America. The paper focuses particularly on two aspects of the changes in the late 1990s: (1) new forms of automobile retailers in both used cars and new car businesses (e.g., so called...

This paper reports a speech by Michikazu Tanaka, former Senior Managing Director in charge of Production at Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., about Taiichi Ohno, the creator of so called Toyota Production System (T. P. S.). Tanaka explains how Ohno, Executive Vice President of Toyota then, led the...

This paper summarizes a questionnaire survey conducted in the first half of 1999 as to historical developments and recent trends of parts transaction practices, component design architecture, inter-firm knowledge transfer, and competitive performance. 153 Japanese first-tier parts suppliers...