Does geographical proximity matter? : the spatial dynamics of the South Korean and Japanese automobile industries

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This dissertation addresses why and how firms in developmental situations choose to locate where they do. In this dissertation, I challenge the abstract, ahistorical, and Western centric theories of location: the classical location, agglomeration, and business network theories. To show how non-western firms make locational decisions within institutional configurations populated by the developmental state and other multiple actors, I construct an historically specific evolutionary theory of industrial location patterns for the auto industry in South Korea and Japan.
In the first pre-industrialization periods, individual entrepreneurs establish small service and supplier firms in the metropolitan regions because of proximity to rich urban customers. In a subsequent period of state-led industrialization, the state's industrial promotion policy concentrates on existing large firms located in the metropolitan area and implicitly favors continued production and expansion in this area. However, as it adopts regional development policies, the state explicitly induces new entrants to locate in peripheral regions. In the next stage, assemblers may opt for single sourcing and exclusive inter-firm networks, as the private sector emerges and grows. They are thus likely to attract suppliers producing large and bulky parts and systems-component suppliers making modular subassemblies to locate near their assembly plants. However, in spite of the assembly firms' efforts to encourage agglomeration, adversarial business relations, labor management relations, and labor shortages discourage geographical proximity between assemblers and suppliers. In addition, diseconomies of agglomeration or labor problems at existing plants encourage decentralization, resulting in new domestic plants in greenfield sites. Finally, as the Korean economy becomes more globalized, trade policies and the assembly firms' transplant strategies diminish inter-firm organizational linkages with their domestic suppliers in favor of transactions with foreign supplier firms both at home and abroad.
I have chosen four assembly firms - Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, and Daewoo - and their suppliers firms as test cases, employing both qualitative and quantitative data. I combine techniques relying upon interviews, archival analysis, site visits, and longitudinal data from annual reports. The results help regional scientists and policymakers understand likely future patterns of auto industry location in China and other Asian countries.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Abstract = ii
• Acknowledgement = iv
• Dedication = vi
• Table of Contents = vii
• Lists of Tables = x
• List of Figures = xii
• Chapter 1:Introduction = 1
• Chapter 2:An Actor-Centered Theory of Location and Methods = 10
• 2.1. An Actor-centered Location Theory in Late Industrialized Countries = 11
• 2.2. Literature Review = 22
• 2.3. Methodological Approach = 38
• Chapter 3:The Changing Role of the National State and the Evolutionary Location Patterns of the South Korean Auto Industry = 53
• 3.1. Pre-Industrialization and agglomeration in the Primate City = 55
• 3.2. State-led Industrialization, Urbanization Economies, and New Enclaves = 58
• 3.3. Scale Economies, the Auto Assembly Firms-Led Agglomeration of Production Functions, and Concentration of R&D Functions in Seoul = 73
• 3.4. Deregulation, Devolution, New Industrial Complexes, and the Emerging Tensions among Global, National, and Local Actors = 79
• 3.5. Conclusion = 87
• Chapter 4:Business Networks and Suppliers' Locational Choice = 90
• 4.1. Actor-Centered Theory of Suppliers' Spatial Decisions = 93
• 4.2. The Locational Patterns of the Auto Parts Industry = 96
• 4.3. The State, Oligopolistic Industrial Structure, and Inter-firm Relations = 102
• 4.4. Suppliers' Siting Decisions = 116
• 4.5. Theoretical and Policy Implications = 128
• Chapter 5:Flexible Production, Labor Movement, and Greenfield Location of Korean New Assembly Plants and their Suppliers in Korea = 132
• 5.1. Firms' Motives for Flexible Production and New Assembly Plants = 134
• 5.2. Firms' Strategies in Response to Militant Labor Movement:Greenfield Location and Lean Production Systems = 139
• 5.3. Geographical Implications of Flexible Production System:Flexible Technologies, Work Organization, JIT Delivery Systems = 158
• 5.4. Conclusion = 165
• Chapter 6:The Determinants and Effects of Overseas Direct Investments:The South Korean Auto Industry = 167
• 6.1. Critical literature review and conceptual framework = 170
• 6.2. South Korean auto FDI = 173
• 6.3. The causes of rapid expansion of Korean outward foreign investment = 179
• 6.4. Outcomes of overseas investment and policy implication = 196
• 6.5. Conclusion = 209
• Chapter 7:Locational Determinants of the Japanese Auto Plants = 211
• 7.1. State-led industrialization and industrial location = 214
• 7.2. JIT Production System, Inter-firm Networks, and Geographical Proximity = 223
• 7.3. Greenfield Location of the New Toyota and Nissan Plants in Kyushu = 234
• 7.4. Globalization and the Japanese Overseas Transplants (1980-present) = 240
• 7.5. Conclusion = 245
• Chapter 8:Conclusion:Comparison and Implications = 247
• 8.1. Comparison = 247
• 8.2. Policy Implications = 255
• Bibliography = 260
• Vita = 283