New Conditions for Competition between Japanese and European Firms 1

Oligopolistic competition has been recognized as one of the most important determinants of multinationalization of firms (Hymer 1976) long before Japanese multinationals started a new wave of world restructuring of the major so-called ‘global industries’. Yet recent industrial struggle on American and European markets has given a new dimension to global competition which is probably to a large extent responsible for the launching of the 1992 scheme.