Interfirm Relations Under Late Industrialization in China: The Supplier System in the Motorcycle Industry, M. Ohara. Institute of Developing Economies Japan External Trade Organization (2006). I.D.E. Occasional Papers Series No. 40, ISBN: 4-268-52040

摘要

The author uses the case of a mass production industry that fully utilises assembling and processing of parts to explore the factors that have influenced the drastically different development process of Chinese manufacturing industries compared to other late-industrialising economies, and to cast light on perspectives for the future. The Japanese motorcycle industry developed after World War II, gaining momentum in the 1950s and reaching a high growth period in the mid-1960s; at the height of its development, the Japanese motorcycle industry was concentrated in four major players and its exports were primarily to the high-end Western markets. The motorcycle industry in China developed from the mid-1990s onwards, going through a similar cycle of import -> import substitution -> export; yet, unlike Japan, the Chinese motorcycle industry can count over 150 makers, a number that is still growing, and its exports are primarily to low-end markets in other Asian countries.