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. Contributors to this volume - Jonathan Zeitlin, University of Wisconsin-Madison Jacqueline McGlade, Monmouth University, USA Steven Tolliday, University of Leeds, UK Kenneth Lipartito, Florida International University, USA Henrik Glimstedt, Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden Matthias Kipping, University of Reading, UK Ruggero Ranieri, University of Manchester, UK Duccio Bigazzi, Previously of the University of Milan, Italy Paul Erker, Free University of Berlin, Germany Kazuo Wada, University of Tokyo, Japan Takao Shiba, Kyoto Sangyo University, Japan Gary Herrigel, University of Chicago, USA