Family Business in Mexico: Responses to Human Resource Limitations and Management Succession

Indigenous firms in Mexico, as in most developing countries, take the shape of family businesses. Regardless of size, the most predominant ones are those owned and managed by one or more families or descendent families of the founders. From the point of view of economics and business administration, family business is considered to have variety of limitations when it seeks to grow. One of the serious limitations is concerning human resource, which is revealed at the time of management succession. Big family businesses in Mexico deal with human resource limitations adopting measures such as the education and training of the successors, the establishment of management structure that makes control by the owner family possible and divisions of roles among the owner family members, and between the owner family members and the salaried managers. Institutionalization is a strategy that considerable number of family businesses have adopted in order to undergo the succession process without committing serious errors. Institutionalization is observed in such aspects as the establishment of the requisite condition to be met by the candidate of future successor and the screening by an institution which is independent of the owner family. At present these measures allow for the continuation of family businesses in an extremely competitive environment.

Value Chain Dynamics and Growth of Local Firms:The Case of Motorcycle Industry in Vietnam

Vietnam’s burgeoning market for motorcycles has attracted global industry eaders,players from developing countries, and local firms. This has led to a dynamic evolution of value chains. This paper presents an explanation of the varieties of the growth patterns xperienced by the local suppliers, focusing on the roles of customer and local supplier strategies. Case studies showed that while the role of customers may be important, strategies of suppliers to improve the ompetitive edge in the production of otorcycle components and to diversify into other products account for important ariations of growth trajectories among local suppliers. Findings presented in this paper suggest the need to direct more attention to strategy that local firms use to boost their competitive edge in business.

The Diversity and Dynamics of Industrial Organisation: Transformation of Local Assemblers in the Vietnamese Motorcycle Industry

This paper focuses on an emerging arm's-length form of industrial organisation in the motorcycle industry, which had traditionally been characterised by tightly integrated form of organisation. By engaging in how this new form of organisation that emerged in China was transferred to Vietnam and evolved in the Vietnamese context, this paper seeks to illustrate how the rise of local firms in developing countries is driving the increased diversity and dynamics of industrial organisation in an industry that had previously been dominated by TNCs from developed countries.

Parameterization of applied general equilibrium models with flexible trade specifications based on the Armington, Krugman, and Melitz models

This paper explains how the Armington-Krugman-Melitz supermodel developed by Dixon and Rimmer can be parameterized, and demonstrates that only two kinds of additional information are required in order to extend a standard trade model to include Melitz-type monopolistic competition and heterogeneous firms. Further, it is shown how specifying too much additional information leads to violations of the model constraints, necessitating adjustment and reconciliation of the data. Once a Melitz-type model is parameterized, a Krugman-type model can also be parameterized using the calibrated values in the Melitz-type model without any additional data. Sample code for the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS) has also been prepared to promote the innovative supermodel in the AGE community.

The Japanese and Chinese models of industrial organisation : fighting for supremacy in the Vietnamese motorcycle industry

This paper explores the consequences of the emerging rivalry between Japanese and Chinese manufacturers. It focuses specifically on industrial organisation, one of the key factors that underlie the competitiveness of manufacturing industries. The question to be asked is what happens when distinctive models of industrial organisation, coming from Japan and China, clash in a developing country. An in-depth longitudinal analysis of the Vietnamese motorcycle industry adopting a modified version of the global value chain governance theory shows that a decade-long industrial transformation resulted in organisational diversity. The implications of the analysis for the literature on industrial organisation are discussed.

Competition between firms in developing and developed countries

We analyze competition in emerging markets between firms in developing and developed countries from the viewpoint of the boundaries of the firm. Although indigenous firms generally face a disadvantage in technology compared with foreign firms, they have an advantage in marketing as local firms. Moreover, they have opportunities to leave weaker fields to independent specialized firms and use lower wages. On the other hand, foreign firms also have their own advantages and disadvantages for growth. Therefore, entry conditions for indigenous firms can vary greatly depending on the situation. We classify these conditions into eight cases by developing a model and showing each boundary choice for indigenous firms.

Chairship system and decision making by consensus in international agreements : the case of ASEAN

How are different positions reconciled under decision making by consensus in international agreements? This article aims to answer this question. Consensus rule provides each participant a veto, which risks resulting in non-agreement. Taking ASEAN as a case study of international organizations that have adopted consensus rule as the main decision-making procedure, this article presents the chairship system as an analytical scheme to examine how different positions are or are not reconciled under consensus rule. The system is based on conventional knowledge regarding the chair in international conference, which can be defined as an institution where the role of the chair is taken by one member state in an international organization and plays a role in agenda-setting. The agenda-setting power given to the chair varies across organizations. This article assumes that the chair in ASEAN is given a relatively strong agenda-setting power to enable the chair to reach agreements and bias such agreements in its own favor.

Boundaries of firms and catching up by latecomers in global production networks : the case of a Mexican auto-parts manufacturer

For manufacturing firms in developing countries, there are high barriers to entry and to catching up with competitors in their global production networks (GPNs). This paper examines the case of a Mexican auto-parts manufacturer that succeeded in catching up in the automotive GPN. The author proposes that the door to GPNs is open thanks to frequent changes in the boundaries of firms, and also stresses the importance of the necessary conditions that generate opportunities, including institutional settings that facilitate market entry and catching up, and capability building by firms hopeful of entry.