In the trend of globalization, the auto industry in China has been highly developing. Every movement of it will affect the development of the global auto industry. With such great potential volume from the consuming population of 1.3 billion and the special political and economic system, China auto industry develops by leaps and bounds. Further, not only the numbers of firms are quite a lot, but also the forms of firms are diverse. However, this phenomenon causes the development of the auto industry in China to be disordered, casual, and small. Joint venture firms, in the contrary of the local firms, have been the major roles in the auto industry in China, and occupy more than 70% of the auto market in China. But in recent years, the automobile market share of the independent brand in China has been gradually on the increase; the output growth rate of the independent brand also exceeds the average standard of the industry. As many phenomena have proven the success of independent brands, this study intended to use the analysis on the Chinese auto market and the case study of a local auto firm in China to understand how the China's political and economic structure affects the automobile market and the operation of the auto firms with independent brands. Automobile industry is a labor-intensive, capital-intensive, and technology-intensive industry. It not only has a very high degree of industrial linkage, but also has an enormous impact on a country's economy. Further, cars of independent brand often represent the home country's economic and scientific strength. But according to the result of this study, the case succeeded for its own efforts and precision timing's forecast more than the government policy relevance. Though China is regarded as the big country of automobile consumption, the performances of the independent-brand auto industry in China have less surprising growth than the consumer market of the automobile. If the government plans the intact policies for the automobile industry of independent brand and encourages the independent technical development, China can suppress the invasion of foreign automobile brands and foreign capitals effectively, and set up the automobile kingdom of China belonging to itself.

Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 1986. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

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Evidence exists today which indicates that our present motor carrier regulatory system, rather than "protect the public interest", might actually inhibit the efficient provision of transportation services to the economy. Accepting such a view of the regulated motor transport market as valid, this thesis could serve as a model from which legislators might begin to re-write our motor carrier act. It is assumed throughout this work that such an undertaking is well overdue. The possible use of this thesis for such a purpose is its primary justification for existence. In order to serve as a basis for such a legislative revision, the model and recommendations contained herein should be designed to maximize the potential benefits which might accrue to the industry and the shipping public. The philosophical bias flowing throughout this work is the conviction that this maximization of benefits could best be realized through increased competition among firms, coupled with the minimization, through reduced regulation, of any economic threats to the stability of the national transportation system. Thus, the attempt is made in the model to be presented to provide for an increased level of industry competition while retaining those essential elements of regulation upon which the national transportation policy was originally based. The approach taken in this work is one of review, description, analysis, model-building and commentary. The current regulatory issues of concern to the motor transportation industry are reviewed in chapter 2. The market structure is described in chapter 3, followed by an analysis of price and output determination in chapter 4. The framework for a new approach to price determination in this industry is developed in chapters 5 and 6. The model presented is intended to replace many of the regulatory procedures in use today. Chapter 7 contains comments on the relevance to the industry of the model constructed in chapters 5 and 6, to include a discussion of its probable impact upon several of the most perplexing problems facing regulators today. The appendix was added to enhance the reader' s und er-st.and.i.ng of the extent to which present-day regulated motor transport rate structures fail to represent rational and economically justifiable charges for services rendered. This thesis will not continue in the modern trend of regulatory literature--that is, resorting to emotionalism and allegations aimed at removing regulation from the transport industry (16). Nor is its purpose to justify the oontinued existence of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Rather, the admittedly ambitious goal of this work is to present what is felt to be a much-needed new format for regulation in this field--one based upon the ideals of economic theory, the tenets of national transportation policy, and the restraints of present-day market realities. With this goal in mind, every attempt will be made to announce assumptions, identify opinions and employ rigid economic analysis whenever possible.

Diversity and Teamwork are currently some of the trendiest human resources strategies of boosting team performance and ultimately, organizational performance. This study analyzes the impact of gender, racial, age and employment status diversity on teamwork, and is one of the first studies on diversity and teamwork in the mature phase of Japanese transplants. The theoretical framework includes elements of the symbolic interactionist theory, Kanter.s theory on tokenism, revised contact hypothesis and perspectives on cultural diversity (Ely and Thomas, 2001). The data were collected from interviews with 87 workers from 16 production teams working on the assembly line at a top Japanese auto transplant in US, as well as from observation, analysis of corporate literature and the annual opinion survey. Furthermore, intermediary variables like team climate or team spirit have been found to mediate the relationships between diversity and team performance. Gender mixed teams reported a more enjoyable and pleasant experience in teams, whereas the male teams exposed more rivalry and competition and the female teams had more interpersonal conflicts. Similarly, the racially diverse teams have more fun and more interesting things to discuss at work, which alleviates the boredom caused by the routine of the assembly-line. Age-balanced teams also have optimal functioning in terms of productivity, quality, safety and problem-solving. Differences in employment status were found to bring inequality and different standards of performance for permanent and temporary workers, which can threaten the fundamental principles of teamwork.

This Thesis discusses issues surrounding the conduct of business in a global environment. The focus of this paper involved a major manufacturer and its business model (Deutsches Auto AG) to supply vehicles to markets in New Zealand, South Korea, Nepal, and Mongolia. Analysis was made from previously collected survey data taken in each region focused on the dealership and end-user level. Not surprisingly, it was discovered that language and cultural barriers had a significant impact on each locations operations. Observations showed that language seemed to have created a problem in every day operations in regards to management and dealership tasks. English as the lingua franca – common language of trade, was often a second or third language of the individuals conducting day to day business. Not only did everybody have their own native language but also regional dialects that affected communication, but cultural perspectives also complicated communication. This paper does not address all issues surrounding global business, but focuses its attention to personal observations and data collected to identify break downs in communications across the regions of New Zealand, South Korea, Nepal, and Mongolia. This research identified and confirmed the problems to be a lack of English skills (comprehension and speech), which is expected to be the common language between all. With this expectation, there is little emphasis given to teaching English, nor the cultural contexts and hierarchical understandings that enhances effective communication.

Over the past decade, firms in the auto industry have focused much of their attention on new product development performance. This paper reports on a follow-up study to Clark and Fujimoto's research on product development performance in the 1980s. We find that US and European firms have made significant strides in meeting Japanese product development performance. Driving this improvement have been changes in the use of suppliers, in overlapping phases of the development process, and in the type of project management system used. We also find that Korean auto makers are relatively efficient in terms of lead time and engineering productivity, although final design quality is lower. The narrowing of the competitive gap in the management of individual projects may point to product line performance as a future driver of competitive advantage. / Draft

Modularization (MD) in the auto industry is relatively new when compared to its use in other industrial areas. It is regarded as the third revolution in the history of the auto industry after Henry Ford's assembly line production system and Toyota's JIT (just in time) management. Modularization brought a major reorganization to the automotive parts supplier industry by realizing the firm's strategic positional advantage through mass customization While academic interest in this area also experienced significant growth in recent years, few empirical studies have been conducted because it is a difficult task to operationalize the multi-faceted, complex modularization. Although modularization has become a global trend in the auto industry, studies show that different characteristics of modularization are exhibited in various international automobile markets. China has been recognized as the largest car market and manufacturer in the world in recent times, yet the industrial structure is quite different from leading countries such as the U.S. and Japan. More than sixty percent of the vehicles in China are produced under foreign brands by joint venture factories. Despite the importance and uniqueness of the Chinese auto market, only a few conceptual scholarly works have been conducted touching on the concept of modularization. This means that there is not a deep understanding of this topic as it exists in the Chinese auto market. To emphasize, no literature was found among the existing works about the cultural impact on modularization and its outcomes in China. The purpose of this study is to fill in such a gap with an empirical analysis on the impact of modularization on the auto industry in China. Guanxi as a unique cultural phenomenon in China is covered in this study. Internalization theory, transaction cost economics, the knowledge based view of the firm, and the OLI model is reviewed as a base for the study. In practice, this study will help managers in the auto industry make a more scientific decision of whether and how they should go into modularization, especially in the Chinese market. It is also helpful for automakers like GM and Ford who have an ambitious parts procurement plan from China to have a better understanding of the Chinese auto industry.

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A number of presidents have aided the auto industry, protected it from external threats, or saved it from collapse, while presidential rhetoric about the industry is positive and consistent across political parties and over time. I conduct rhetorical analyses of the entire history of presidential speech about the industry to explain the evolution of the relationship between these two institutions. I argue that this relationship is an example of the institutionalization of speech; perfunctory campaign praise became habitual and eventually coalesced into a rhetorical legacy that entailed rhetorical and material resources and constraints for the institution of the presidency. In the case of the auto industry, presidents sought political support from the auto industry as a constituency, erased blameworthy aspects of industry history, and created an industry identity that was exceptional, which served as justification for defense of the industry and intervention during periods of economic recession, regulatory stress, foreign competition, and imminent collapse of an automaker. Such cases of institutionalized speech between the presidency and other institutions are special, but not unique; this case provides an instructive example of how speech becomes legacy over time, and of what the consequences of such legacies might include for this case and for possible others.