East Asia has led rapid economic growth in the last few decades with India joining them over the last five years. Automotive parts manufacturers have been an important component of domestic production in all these economies. Experts with several years of multi-disciplinary research experience on the field examine the actual and potential technological and localization implications of MNC operations in East Asia and India. The rich collection of country experiences are both original and incisive. This volume includes: Case studies from China, Japan, India, Thailand and Malaysia A study of the role of multinationals in Asian technology building An examination of the growing Chinese automobile sector Featuring leading academics from across Asia, this title is essential reading for those studying industrial growth in the continent's major economies.

East Asia has led rapid economic growth in the last few decades with India joining them over the last five years. Automotive parts manufacturers have been an important component of domestic production in all these economies. Experts with several years of multi-disciplinary research experience on the field examine the actual and potential technological and localization implications of MNC operations in East Asia and India. The rich collection of country experiences are both original and incisive. This volume includes: Case studies from China, Japan, India, Thailand and Malaysia A study of the role of multinationals in Asian technology building An examination of the growing Chinese automobile sector Featuring leading academics from across Asia, this title is essential reading for those studying industrial growth in the continent's major economies.

The book provides a detailed theoretical framework and a case study on how FDI in the form of knowledge transfer from overseas MNEs contributes to the upgrading of regional manufacturing clusters. Although regional clusters have been the subject of many books, this book is one of the few that explicitly links regional clusters to global networks. It explains how being part of global networks can both facilitate and hinder the development of a regional cluster.

The book aims to identify key issues and developments in ASEAN-5 that illustrate the transition of this region towards a knowledge-based economy. The book contributes to understanding the opportunities and challenges faced by emerging economies. It explains the transition process from a knowledge based perspective, showing how knowledge creation and innovation contribute to the competitiveness of companies and sectors in this region. The book takes a distinctly ASEAN perspective by discussing examples of the transition process from all ASEAN 5 nations that show how this region is attempting to link up to the global knowledge economy of the 21st Century. To achieve these aims the book is divided into three parts, preceded by an introductory chapter explaining the logic, objectives and contributions of the book. Part I discusses ASEAN-5 as an emerging hub in the global economy. Part II discusses the global links of the ASEAN region. Part III highlights innovation support in the ASEAN region. Each part identifies key developments and discusses relevant challenges and opportunities regarding the economic transition process based on examples for the various ASEAN-5 nations. The book contributes to the literature on emerging economies by explaining their challenges and opportunities of the catching-up process from a knowledge-based perspective. It is definitely a must-read.

Since the bursting of Japan’s bubble economy, from 1990 onwards, its multinational companies (MNCs) have faced new competitive challenges, and questions about the management practices on which they had built their initial success in global markets. Japanese engagement in the international economy has undergone a number of phases. Historically, Japanese MNCs learnt from foreign companies, frequently through strategic alliances. After the post-war ‘economic miracle’, Japanese manufacturers in particular converted themselves into MNCs, transferred their home-grown capabilities to overseas subsidiaries, and made an impact on the world economy. But the period after 1990 marked declining Japanese competitiveness, and asked questions about the ability of Japanese MNCs to be more responsive and global in their strategies, organization, and capabilities. It has been argued that the established management practices of Japanese MNCs inhibited adaptation to recent demands of global competition. This volume presents new case evidence on how Japanese MNCs have responded to the new challenges of the global market place, and it provides examples of how they have transformed strategies and competitive capabilities. This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

Explains how production networks and industrial clusters have played crucial roles in the industrial development of Indonesia and Malaysia (electronics industry), Singapore (biomedical science industry), and Thailand (automotive industry).

Existing accounts of East Asia’s meteoric growth and structural change has either been explained as one dictated essentially by markets with strong macroeconomic fundamentals, or a consequence of proactive governments. This book departs from such a dichotomy by examining inductively the drivers of the experiences. Given the evolutionary treatment of each economic good and service as different, this book examines technological catch up with a strong focus on the industries contributing significantly to the economic growth of the countries selected in Asia. The evidence produced supports the evolutionary logic of macro, meso and micro interactions between several institutions, depending on the actors involved, structural location and typology of taxonomies and trajectories. The book carefully picks out experiences from the populous economies of China, India and Indonesia, the high income economies of Korea and Taiwan, the middle income economies of Malaysia and Thailand, and the transitional least developed country of Myanmar. Chapters 1-7 of this book were originally published as a special issue of Journal of the Asia Pacific Economy.