Industrial and Corporate Change, Volume 13, Number 2, pp. 335-367
Industrial and Corporate Change 13/2 © ICC Association 2004; all rights reserved.
Flexible practices for mass production goals: economic governance in the Indian automobile industry
Correspondence: Comparative International Development, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Program, University of Washington, 1900 Commerce Street, Tacoma, WA 98402, USA. Email: dcosta{at}u.washington.edu
Abstract
This paper explains the remarkable restructuring of the Indian automobile industry. It argues that firms have had to deploy new governance modes (flexible industrial practices) for economic coordination to overcome supply bottlenecks and meet expanding demand. Firms that failed to adopt these practices performed poorly, while firms that attained economies of scale were able to graduate to exploiting economies of scope. The industry experience suggests that new governance modes can serve mass production goals in developing economies and not just cushion market volatility, for which they were designed.