Conclusion

Productivity and work practices show only limited convergence across the Japanese mother plant and the U.S., Thai, and Chinese transplants. Productivity gaps between the mother plant and the U.S. transplant and productivity differences between the Thai and Chinese transplants still remain at 10 %. Production workers’ skills that are integrated with troubleshooting skills in Japan contrast with production workers’ skills separated from troubleshooting skills in the United States, Thailand, and China. Decision-making by assistant first-line supervisors based on trusting relationships with workers in Japan differs from supervisors’ limited control over workers and frequent worker initiated job transfers (by individual choice) in the United States, Thailand, and China. Manufacturing engineers at the mother plant play full/linking roles, including involvement in production line design innovation and production method development, whereas manufacturing engineers at the U.S., Thai, and Chinese transplants play partial/limited roles. One of the main reasons for the differences is the key characteristic of “integration with employment stability” in Japan versus “independence with job instability” in the United States, Thailand, and China, these being influenced by embedded social norms and institutional factors. Also influential is the reluctance of Japanese managers to transfer successful work practices developed at the mother plant to its transplants.