David Sadler

Internationalization and Specialization in the European Automotive Components Sector: Implications for the Hollowing-out Thesis

SADLER D. (1999) Internationalization and specialization in the European automotive components sector: implications for the hollowing-out thesis, Reg. Studies 33 , 109-119. This paper explores two questions: the geographical conditions associated with an altered relationship between automobile assembly and component firms in Europe; and the ways in which automotive component firms have restructured their operations on a global basis. The first section reviews the interplay between positional balance and spatial reorganization, highlighting the significance of the strategies of leading component manufacturers. These strategies are reviewed in depth in a subsequent section, which pays particular attention to processes of internationalization and specialization. A further exploratory section asks whether-in the light of these trends-a process of hollowing-out might be taking place within the European automobile industry. It is concluded that important issues to be addressed include the balance between invest...

State and Market in Eastern Europe: Regional Development and Workplace Implications of Direct Foreign Investment in the Automobile Industry in Hungary

Interactions between state and market in eastern Europe since 1989 are examined by focusing on inward investment in one sector the automobile industry which has been at the forefront in the development of new production strategies within the region, and one state Hungary where much foreign investment has been concentrated. The paper examines patterns of uneven development, the distinctive workplace organization and ownership form of state-planned economies, and their reconstitution as part of the process of transformation. The main direct foreign investment projects within the auto industry in eastern Europe are outlined to identify the global market context. The more detailed account of Hungary concentrates on the strategies of four leading companies: Ikarus, General Motors, Ford and Suzuki. The conclusion reconsiders the reconstitution of states and markets

The international steel industry : restructuring, state policies, and localities

1. Steel, The World Economy and Locality: Some Introductory Remarks. 2. New Patterns of Production and Trade in the World Steel Industry 3. Contesting Steel Closures: Twists and Turns on the Path of Decline in Western Europe and the USA. 4. Replacing Steel Jobs: State Policies for Re-industralisation. 5. Future Directions for Steel Towns, Steelworkers and the Steel Industry.

Changing Inter-Firm Relations in the European Automotive Industry: Increased Dependence or Enhanced Autonomy for Components Producers?

This article explores the extent to which the benefits of new forms of inter-firm partnership within the European automotive industry have been shared between assemblers and component producers. It first considers the changing nature of the buyer-supplier relationship from the viewpoint of different parties and as part of a process of restructuring within the filiere. Then it documents patterns of performance, comparing samples of five European vehicle assemblers and ten component firms from 1987 to 1996. Evidence is presented on R&D and capital investment expenditures, inventory levels and work-inprogress, and profitability. It is concluded that lead- ing component manufacturers proved more resilient and adaptable than the assemblers during the early 1990s. This is explained in terms of the position of these system integrators with respect to their own suppliers, and the differing sectoral and geographical configurations of assembly and leading component firms.

In Search of Regional Industrial Culture: The Role of Labour Organisations in Old Industrial Regions

This paper examines the ways in which the institutions of organised labour contribute to the formulation of regional industrial culture. We argue that industrial culture is fundamental to an understanding of uneven regional development. This industrial culture is dynamic, both product and constituent of negotiated social activities that involve the traditions and capacities of labour as an actor in its own right. We address the question of precisely how these connections between economy and culture are made. This is done through a detailed case study of the way in which one labour organisation—the national steel labour union in the UK, the Iron and Steel Trades Confederation (ISTC)—has both shaped and been influenced by the industrial culture of Teesside in northeast England. There, we argue, nationally led centrist labour politics came together with paternalistic capital-labour relations and localistic forms of self-identification to create a distinctive regional industrial culture. We focus in particular upon four processes: the social construction of work in the steel industry; relations with other steel regions within the UK; fragmentation in collective bargaining; and the ISTCs recent reorientation towards community unionism. We conclude that much remains to be done given the powerful legacies from decades of innate conservatism, but that it is now at least possible to begin to address important questions about the future direction of the local economy. Thinking in terms of the contingent interaction between cultural and economic attributes, centrally incorporating labour, is useful because it opens up the concepts of adaptability and institutional blockage to wider interpretations.

State Policies and the Changing Geography of the Coal Industry in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s

The UK coal industry experienced great changes in the 1980s. Three features are of particular significance to its future in the 1990s. These are questions to do with the volume of deep-mined output from collieries, and where this is mined; the ratio of open cast to deep-mined output, and the locations in which such open cast extraction occurs; and the balance of coal produced within the UK to imports. In this paper we seek to interpret the changing geography of coal production and trade in terms of the character of UK state policies toward the coal industry and the whole issue of energy supply. We identify a number of tensions which lie at the heart of the current direction to policy. These are the different treatment of coal and nuclear power as sources of primary energy; the problems caused by privatization of the UKs electricity supply industry and the proposed sale of British Coal to the private sector; environmental concern over energy consumption; and the strategic and balance-of-payments implications of increased import dependency. We conclude that present policieswhich are likely to lead to further dramatic reductions in UK deep-mined coal production-are far from rational either in the sense of the relations between the UK and the world energy market, or the appropriate use of valuable and finite UK energy

A tale of two industries : the contraction of coal and steel in the North East of England

Part 1 The context - coal and steel 1970-85 expansion and contraction - two sides of state planning international markets a privatizing tendency Part 2 The closure of Horden colliery the colliery and its reserves closure Part 3 Themes, issues, problems rationalization, privatization and the market halting economic decline

“Europeanisation” in the Automotive Components Sector and Its Implications for State and Locality

The absolute and relative significance of the automotive components sector became increasingly apparent during the 1980s. Assembly companies in North America and Western Europe successfully sought to out-source greater proportions of the value of a finished vehicle (following the highly profitable Japanese model), and to delegate enhanced responsibilities to component companies in the field of design and development. These moves were associated with an intensification of restructuring processes, leading to the emergence of a “first tier” of major companies producing automotive components (although it is important to note that they were not necessarily geared exclusively to production for the auto industry), and to heightened relations of dependence within the supply chain between these companies and their own suppliers. As the assembly industry responded to intensified global competition, in other words, further changes were initiated both to the relationship between assembly and component activities, and within the automotive component sector.

Communities in Crisis The Social and Political Effects of Steel Closures in France, West Germany, and the United Kingdom

The historical geography of the growth of the steel industry in Western Europe led to communities that were heavily, even wholly, reliant on the jobs and wages generated by steel production. In this article we focus on some of the social and political implications for such communities of contraction in the steel industry since the mid-1970s.

“Just‐in‐Time” Production and the European Automotive Components Industry

The market and political conditions facing Japanese investment in automobile assembly in Western Europe are wholly different from those in North America. Argues in consequence that a distinctive set of questions is necessary in order to evaluate the likely consequences of such investment for the components sector. Within Western Europe, the “indigenous” automotive components industry has begun a process of restructuring, enabling it to face new demands of production and delivery characterized as “Just‐in‐Time”. Rather than relocate close to new vehicle assembly plants, creating spatially‐clustered production complexes, as some have suggested, a favoured solution has instead typically involved changes to logistical operations, enabling JIT delivery from existing Europe‐wide production systems. Outlines the reasons for this response and assesses some of its implications.