Transplanted Organizations: The Transfer of Japanese Industrial Organization to the U.S.

Abstract

Industrial sociology and organization theory suggest that it is difficult to transfer organizations from one environment to another and that organizations that are transferred will take on characteristics of the new environment. We hypothesize that the organization/environment relation works in both directions and that organizations have the resources to alter their environments in light of theirfunctional requirements. We explore these issues in light of recent debates over new models of production organization and interfirm production networks. Japanese automotive assembly plants and their suppliers in the United States provide an ideal case to explore such questions because they represent organizations that are being transferred from a supportive to a foreign environment. We find that these Japanese automotive transplants have effectively transferred both intraand interorganizational characteristics, e.g., team-based work organization and 'just-in-time supplier relations to the United States. Thus, they have actively transformed their environments to suit their needs.