ABSTRACT
In seeking to draw any conclusions about the determinants of performance differences between firms, it is necessary to isolate possible industry effects by confining the research to one industry (Hirsch 1975; Rouse and Daellenbach 1999). As we are concerned here with competition in a global environment, it is necessary to select an industry that can be classed as global. Several such industries have been identified, including automobiles/motorcycles (Henzler and Rall 1986; Levitt 1983; Porter 1986a), aircraft (Doz 1987; Hout, Porter and Rudden 1982), chemicals (Chakravarthy and Perlmutter 1985; Levitt 1983), pharmaceuticals (Henzler and Rall 1986; Doz 1987) and semiconductors (Kobrin 1991; Levitt 1983; Porter 1986a). These and others, including consumer electronics, electronic instruments and telecommunications, have been the subject of previous research (Roth and Morrison 1990; Roth 1992). For the purposes of this study, the automotive components industry was chosen as the target industry of study. The structure and dynamics of the industry are briefly reviewed below and this is followed by a discussion of the findings of a four-country research study on the industry.
