Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 The new multinationals
- 2 Traditional and new multinationals
- 3 Diversification and vertical integration in traditional industries
- 4 Market access and technology in durable consumer goods
- 5 Serving global customers in producer goods
- 6 Learning by doing in infrastructure and financial services
- 7 Competing in hard and soft services
- 8 The new multinational as a type of firm
- References
- Index
5 - Serving global customers in producer goods
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- 1 The new multinationals
- 2 Traditional and new multinationals
- 3 Diversification and vertical integration in traditional industries
- 4 Market access and technology in durable consumer goods
- 5 Serving global customers in producer goods
- 6 Learning by doing in infrastructure and financial services
- 7 Competing in hard and soft services
- 8 The new multinational as a type of firm
- References
- Index
Summary
It is impossible to study the economic growth of the developing countries in modern times without considering the mutual interactions between these economies and those of the advanced countries.
K. Akamatsu (1962: 3)Once upon a time, I didn't have to do R&D. Now I do research, design and development; I have to be a leader and to rack my brains. These are costs, but thanks to them the relationship between the manufacturer and the supplier has become very difficult to be broken.
Tarragó Pujol, Vice-President of Ficosa InternationalProducer goods historically played a prominent role in the rise of the newly industrialized countries beginning in the 1960s, including South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Brazil, Mexico, and Spain, among others. Sectors such as steel, metals, automotive components, and machinery became the target of the government's development efforts. In this chapter, we analyze selected examples of Spanish firms that benefited from such policies and pursued strategies of global growth, albeit with different degrees of product diversification and vertical integration. We also draw comparisons to Indian and Chinese firms in the same industry.
One common policy to jump-start producer goods manufacturing is to attract investments by foreign multinationals. In the automobile sector, for instance, governments frequently offer assemblers favorable conditions with a view to fostering the development of local suppliers. Governments can speed up industrialization by attracting inward foreign direct investments oriented to exports that also entail local sourcing of components and support services. Under these circumstances MNEs act as “instant transplanters of industrialization” (Ozawa 1996).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The New MultinationalsSpanish Firms in a Global Context, pp. 99 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010