Americanization and its limits

"Models of productive efficiency and business organization identified with a particular nation have repeatedly emerged throughout the history of the modern world economy."

"This book examines perhaps the most massive and important of these processes: the European and Japanese engagement with US technology and management methods in the mid-twentieth century. Focusing on a number of key industrial sectors (engineering, telecommunications, motor vehicles, steel, and rubber) across a broad range of countries (the UK, Sweden, France, Italy, Germany, and Japan), the richly detailed and frequently comparative essays highlight the creative role played by local actors in modifying the 'American Model' to suit their own circumstances. The most striking findings elaborate how European and Japanese firms succeeded in creating hybrid forms that combined indigenous with foreign practices in unforeseen but often remarkably competitive ways."

"The book combines historical research with theoretical analysis in ways that will be of interest to historians, social scientists, and business academics concerned with the dynamics of economic and corporate growth, industrial development, and the diffusion of productive and business models."--Jacket.