IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/envira/v36y2004i3p529-546.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Persistent Variation: Flexibility, Organization, and Strategy in the Logistics of Importing Automobiles to the United States, 1980–99

Author

Listed:
  • Peter V Hall

    (Department of City and Regional Planning, University of California at Berkeley, 228 Wurster Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-1850, USA)

Abstract

The author presents case studies that reveal persistent variation in the logistics operations of firms importing new automobiles to the USA from 1980 to 1999. He argues that, in addition to the recognized differences such as national origin, product mix, and production organization, the strategic organization of logistics itself constitutes a basis for persistent variation. Firms operating at a global scale face heightened uncertainties in matching supply and demand and hence have a heightened requirement for flexibility. This is theorized in this paper as the ability to collect and transmit information, both codified and tacit, within and across various spatial scales. However, these informational goals imply very different organizational structures that are in tension. In ideal-type terms, firm organizational structures vary in the degree to which they are localized—referring to the intra-regional collection of information through horizontal relationships between the firm and external actors—or globalized—referring to the interregional transmission of information between portions of the firm. Persistent variation is the most likely outcome as firms constantly seek to reorganize their logistics operations in historically contingent, experimental, and contested ways.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter V Hall, 2004. "Persistent Variation: Flexibility, Organization, and Strategy in the Logistics of Importing Automobiles to the United States, 1980–99," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 36(3), pages 529-546, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:3:p:529-546
    DOI: 10.1068/a3630
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1068/a3630
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1068/a3630?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marie-Claude Belis-Bergouignan & Gerard Bordenave & Yannick Lung, 2000. "Global Strategies in the Automobile Industry," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(1), pages 41-53.
    2. Clive Lawson & Edward Lorenz, 1999. "Collective Learning, Tacit Knowledge and Regional Innovative Capacity," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(4), pages 305-317.
    3. Hall, Peter Voss, 2002. "The Institution of Infrastructure and the Development of Port-Regions," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt23d3c7kx, University of California Transportation Center.
    4. Andrew Mair, 1994. "Global Local Corporation," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Honda’s Global Local Corporation, chapter 11, pages 301-352, Palgrave Macmillan.
    5. Hall, Peter V., 2002. "The Institution of Infrastructure and the Development of Port-Regions," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt4h57f9db, University of California Transportation Center.
    6. Michel Freyssenet & Yannick Lung, 2000. "Between Globalisation and Regionalisation: What is the Future of the Motor Industry?," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: John Humphrey & Yveline Lecler & Mario Sergio Salerno (ed.), Global Strategies and Local Realities, chapter 4, pages 72-94, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Meric S. Gertler, 2001. "Best practice? Geography, learning and the institutional limits to strong convergence," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 5-26, January.
    8. Andrew Mair, 1994. "Honda’s Global Local Corporation," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-37485-0, September.
    9. Martin Kennly & Richard Florida, 1995. "The Transfer Of Japanese Management Styles In Two Us Transplant Industries: Autos And Electronics," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(6), pages 789-802, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Peter V. Hall, 2004. "Mutual Specialisation, Seaports And The Geography Of Automobile Imports," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(2), pages 135-146, April.
    2. Peter V. Hall, 2004. "“We’d Have to Sink the Ships†: Impact Studies and the 2002 West Coast Port Lockout," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 18(4), pages 354-367, November.
    3. Hidekazu Itoh & David Guerrero, 2020. "Investigating variations in the deep-sea sourcing strategies of car manufacturers: Two case studies of parts consolidation centers in Japan," Post-Print hal-02549412, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Quazi Sakalayen & Peggy Shu-Ling Chen & Stephen Cahoon, 2017. "The strategic role of ports in regional development: conceptualising the experience from Australia," Maritime Policy & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(8), pages 933-955, November.
    2. Thomas Murakami, 1997. "The Autonomy of Teams in the Car Industry a Cross National Comparison," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 11(4), pages 749-758, December.
    3. Geoffrey G. Bell & Akbar Zaheer, 2007. "Geography, Networks, and Knowledge Flow," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 955-972, December.
    4. Anders Malmberg & Peter Maskell, 2010. "An Evolutionary Approach to Localized Learning and Spatial Clustering," Chapters, in: Ron Boschma & Ron Martin (ed.), The Handbook of Evolutionary Economic Geography, chapter 18, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    5. Sánchez, Ricardo J. & Wilmsmeier, Gordon, 2006. "Chapter 9 The River Plate Basin - A Comparison of Port Devolution Processes on the East Coast of South America," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 185-205, January.
    6. A Pike, 1998. "Making Performance Plants from Branch Plants? In Situ Restructuring in the Automobile Industry in the United Kingdom," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 30(5), pages 881-900, May.
    7. Peter V. Hall, 2004. "Mutual Specialisation, Seaports And The Geography Of Automobile Imports," Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, Royal Dutch Geographical Society KNAG, vol. 95(2), pages 135-146, April.
    8. Demyanchenko Alisa G., 2013. "Role and structure of sea ports of Ukraine," The Problems of Economy, RESEARCH CENTRE FOR INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT PROBLEMS of NAS (KHARKIV, UKRAINE), issue 2, pages 53-59.
    9. César Ducruet & Hidekazu Itoh & Olivier Joly, 2015. "Ports and the local embedding of commodity flows," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 94(3), pages 607-627, August.
    10. Neij, Lena & Heiskanen, Eva & Strupeit, Lars, 2017. "The deployment of new energy technologies and the need for local learning," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 274-283.
    11. Kitae Sohn, 2013. "Sources Of Happiness In Indonesia," The Singapore Economic Review (SER), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 58(02), pages 1-27.
    12. Jesús F. Lampón & Santiago Lago-Peñas, 2013. "Factors behind international relocation and changes in production geography in the European automobile components industry," Working Papers 2013/16, Institut d'Economia de Barcelona (IEB).
    13. Beugelsdijk, S. & Cornet, M., 2001. "How far do They Reach? The Localization of Industrial and Academic Knowledge Spillovers in the Netherlands," Other publications TiSEM 303b1186-e227-43ce-a118-0, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    14. Alsaad, Abdallah & Taamneh, Abdallah, 2019. "The effect of international pressures on the cross-national diffusion of business-to-business e-commerce," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    15. Argentino Pessoa, 2013. "Competitiveness, Clusters And Policy At The Regional Level: Rhetoric Vs. Practice In Designing Policy For Depressed Regions," Regional Science Inquiry, Hellenic Association of Regional Scientists, vol. 0(1), pages 101-116, June.
    16. Michael Steiner, 2004. "The Role of Clusters in Knowledge Creation and Diffusion – an Institutional Perspective," ERSA conference papers ersa04p612, European Regional Science Association.
    17. Lam, Alice & Lundvall, Bengt-Aake, 2007. "The Learning Organisation and National Systems of Competence Building and Innovation," MPRA Paper 12320, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Sjoerd Beugelsdijk, 2010. "Entrepreneurial Culture, Regional Innovativeness and Economic Growth," Springer Books, in: Andreas Freytag & Roy Thurik (ed.), Entrepreneurship and Culture, chapter 0, pages 129-154, Springer.
    19. Rune Dahl Fitjar & Franz Huber & Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, 2016. "Not too close, not too far: testing the Goldilocks principle of ‘optimal’ distance in innovation networks," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(6), pages 465-487, August.
    20. Lu, Ren & Ruan, Min & Reve, Torger, 2016. "Cluster and co-located cluster effects: An empirical study of six Chinese city regions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1984-1995.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:36:y:2004:i:3:p:529-546. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.