ABSTRACT
During the last decade, rapid shifts in the competitiveness of various countries in several industries, such as automobiles, motorcycles, steel, television sets, cameras, shipbuilding, hi-fi equipment, copiers, semiconductors and others, have brought the attention of academics, managers, union leaders and public policy makers to the nature and the sources of global competitive advantage. The apparent ease with which new competitors captured significant market shares, even in the domestic markets of the traditional competitors, has given this debate a sense of urgency — and it has also provided it with a political and an emotional flavour. The social consequences of the changing patterns of global competition are far-reaching: for example, the human toll in realigning industry structures in the United States and in Western Europe has been heavy. In the automobile industry alone in the United States, over 350,000 jobs were permanently lost between 1978 and 1984. As a result, the major bargaining issues between the United Auto Workers' Union and the automobile industry no longer concern wages and benefits, but have become job security, restrictions on work transfer, and outsourcing. Employment losses in the Western European car industry between 1978 and 1986 are likely to reach comparable levels.
