Americanization and Its Limits: Reworking US Technology and Management in Post-war Europe and Japan

Throughout the evolution of the modern world economy, new models of productive efficiency and business organization have emerged-in Britain in the nineteenth century, in the US in the early (and perhaps late) twentieth century, and in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s. At each point foreign observers have looked for the secrets of success and best practice, and initiatives have been taken to transmit and diffuse.This book looks in detail at 'Americanization' in Europe and Japan in the post-war period. A group of distinguished international scholars explore in depth the processes, the ideologies, and the adaptations in a number of different countries (the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Germany) and different sectors (engineering, telecommunications, motor vehicles, steel, and rubber). The book is rich in historical analysis based on careful research. This provides the basis for informed and subtle theoretical analysis of the complexities of the diffusion of business organization and the powerful influences of Americanization in this century. It will be of compelling 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.

Table of Contents:
Jonathan Zeitlin: Chapter 1: Introduction: Americanization and Its Limits: Reworking US Technology and Management in Post-War Europe and Japan Part I: Exporting the American Model? Jacqueline McGlade: Chapter 2: Americanization: Ideology or Process? The Case of the US Technical Assistance and Productivity Program Steven Tolliday: Chapter 3: Transplanting the American Model? US Automobile Companies and the Transfer of Technology and Management to Europe after the Second World War Part II: Reworking US Technology and Management: National, Sectoral, and Firm-Level Variations A: Britain and Sweden Jonathan Zeitlin: Chapter 4: Americanizing British Engineering? Strategic Debate, Selective Adaptation, and Hybrid Innovation in Post-War Reconstruction Kenneth Lipartito: Chapter 5: Failure to Communicate: British Telecommunications and the American Lesson Henrik Glimstedt: Chapter 6: Creative Cross-Fertilization and Uneven Americanization of Swedish Industry: Sources of Innovation in Post-War Motor Vehicles and Electrical Manufacturing B: France and Italy Matthias Kipping: Chapter 7: A Slow and Difficult Process: The Americanization of the French Steel Producing and Using Industries after World War II Ruggero Ranieri: Chapter 8: Remodelling the Italian Steel Industry: Americanization, Modernization, and Mass Production Duccio Bigazzi: Chapter 9: Mass Production or 'Organized Craftsmanship'? The Post-War Italian Automobile Industry C: Germany and Japan Paul Erker: Chapter 10: The Long Shadow of Americanization: The German Rubber Industry and the Radial Tire Revolution Kazuo Wada and Takao Shiba: Chapter 11: The Evolution of the 'Japanese Production System': Indigenous Influences and American Impact Gary Herrigel: Chapter 12: American Occupation, Market Order, and Democracy: Reconfiguring the Japanese and German Steel Industries after World War II

About the Author :
Jonanthan Zeitlin is Professor of History, Sociology, and Industrial Relations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is also a co-director of the European Union Center. He has been a consultant on industrial and labour market policy for the International Labour Organization, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and the Greater London Council. Gary Herrigel is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, USA.

Review :
`Review from previous edition This book is essential reading for anyone interested in post-war international economic history and the development of an internationalized business culture. It also provides a salutary reminder about the limited prospects of a national business model being transferred wholesale even in the era of the new economy and revived American dominance.' English Historical Review `A major addition to [the] literature ... this book is a major enrichment of our understanding of 'Americanization', combining a rich array of new research with a rigorous attention to problems of conceptualization.' The Historical Journal `This book will be of great value to economic as well as business historians, particularly those with an interest in the development of globalization ... the project is truly international in its scholarly dimensions' English Historical Review `...this book is the best by far of the recent spate of studies of Americanization, and it will be invaluable to scholars and students in a variety of fields.' Dr Raymond Stokes, University of Glasgow - Technology and Culture, Vol.42 `...this is an important book bringing together for the first time a great deal of useful information.' History, vol. 86, no. 284 `The detailed essays provide some fascinating examples of transatlantic interaction.' History, vol. 86, no. 284 `One hopes that this volume will be read by comparative political economists and management scholars as well [as]... political scientists [and] historians... The view that innovation can stem entirely from the hybridization of codified techniques with local circumstances is only one of its more striking theoretical insights. This is a most engaging and impressive set of essays.' Journal of Economic History