The World Watch industry was at a crucial stage in the 1970’s when there was a possible phase of transition from one way of watch making technology to another i.e. from mechanical to electronic watches. The mechanical watches had been ruling the watch market for quite some time while the electronic watches were deemed to be the next big thing. Amidst this clash of technologies, the three most important watch producing nations i.e. Swiss, Japan and United States competed with each other to maintain their market share as well as their profitability. The largest and the most important market for watches was the US, hence all the three countries were targeting the US market to succeed and in this process they had adopted various different strategies.
The Swiss watch industry had always been the dominant market in the world watch market, there had been several reasons attributed to the same:
Swiss had built watch making into a strong brand
Availability of highly skilled labour, knowledge about watch making had passed down through generations, hence Swiss had a position of competitive advantage
They had much more experience and knowledge about the world watch market compared to their competitors i.e. Japan and United States
They viewed watches as more of a luxury item and less of a utility. Hence the fashion trends they incorporated into their watch making was difficult to challenge
However with time, Japan and United States started coming to the forefront in the world watch market. There were a host of factors that led to their emergence.
Presence of a large home market in Japan as well as United States; Swiss industry thrived mainly on the export market
Presence of low cost, efficient processes of manufacturing
Watch industry growth in Japan was well supported by the growing Japanese economy
The watch industry in Japan was highly concentrated and integrated. They took the best from other industries and opted for assembly line processing
Japan and US had a competitive pricing strategy and offered more features at the same or lower price
There was a paradigm shift as watches were being viewed more as a utility item than a luxury item
Cartel formation within the Swiss industry led to absence of price competition for them
They were not open to innovation and invested lesser on research and development compared to the industry estimates
US opted for aggressive, unorthodox means of marketing and distribution, that created an impact and helped them dominate the US market. Japan on the other hand tied up with US supplying them with their products to be sold under the US name
In the early 1800’s, Japan had blocked off all trade from other countries. Foreign whaling ships could not even reload or repair their ships in Japan territory. This offended many other countries. In 1852, Matthew Perry was sent to Japan to negotiate open trade. Japan felt threatened by the United States, and gave in to their demands. Japan was frightened by their stipulations, and immediately began to reform. They developed a new education system that was similar to America and Europe’s. They also developed a Western style judiciary system.
In conclusion, China and Japan started out differently. Japan used war to establish unity and China use education and political growth. China was very strong in international trade; Japan was a secluded country. China grew slow and strong and Japan grew fast after the Warring States era. In the late 1800’s both countries were strong politically and economically.
Within a short period of time, Japan had caught up with many Western technologies; having established universities, founded telegraph and railroad lines, as well as a national postal system being created. Shipping and textile industries were a huge success an exports rose.
After World War 1 Japan had a hard time adjusting to the new world. “While its economy was still primarily agricultural, rapid population growth (to over 80 million) had diminished the amount of land suitable for farming. Many people lived in small houses, lacking running water. In a nation about the size of California, only one of every six acres was farmland. This put great pressure on Japanese government to find more space and land for its people.” (America Enters World War II page 12). Japan attempted to change its agricultural-based economic system to an industrial based system. “But the international system of trade barriers and tariffs, established by the United States and other industrial powers to protect domestic manufacturing, hindered Japan’s industrial expansion.” (America Enters World War II page 13). Many of the materials Japan needed were found in neighboring countries that were controlled by European powers. Japan began to question it’s right to Asian markets and raw materials. “J...
... be set at fair prices and therefore successful trading. Also, through commercialization, the Japanese were able to expand on their own lives and embellish their lives more.
In the late nineteenth century, Japan’s economy began to grow and industrialize. Because of the scarcity of natural resources in Japan, they relied on imported materials from other countries. In September 1940, the United States placed an embargo on Japan by outlawing exports of steel, iron, and aviation fuel, because Japan took over north...
Do to the great depression of 1930 the world was economically on its knees throughout most of the 30’s and early 40’s. This had great impacts on trades between many countries to include the US and Japan. Prior to this point, the US had been primarily importing silk from the Japanese and we had been exporting oil and coal commodities to them. The Japanese had felt it was a better option to seek elsewhere for the needed resources to increase their military footprint at the brink of World War II. Already at the verge of war with the Chinese, in 1937 the Japanese decided to force a war at Manchuria, China. In their minds this would be an outlet to seek those resources.
Two positive factors of the Asian/Pacific market came with the economic growth of Asian countries. Rising income per household gave way to a large customer base for ING and the various other insurance companies invested in the market. The life insurance market in particular gave way to large tax advantages which made Eastern Asian countries an ideal market to enter.
The cost advantages related to raw materials may be explained by better negotiated agreements with suppliers (perhaps due to the larger volumes of purchases – comp. Fig. 5) and possibly less shipping and distribution costs that stem from the fact that Samsung’s fab facilities are geographically collocated (while competitors’ facilities are spread world-wide). In terms of labour productivity only Chinese SMIC outperformed Samsung, but that came hardly unexpectedly: low labour costs in China had been and were to remain unbeatable for some time yet.
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By the middle of the 19th century, many more products were being made from interchangeable parts. This paradigm shift caused consumers to become comfortable with buying standard products that were cheaper and easier to repair. Mass production became dominant since it enabled complex products like automobiles to be made cheaply enough that average people could afford them. The general trend of standard designs competing on price and customized
N.V. Philips (Netherlands) and Matsushita Electric (Japan) are among the largest consumer electronics companies in the world. Their success was based on two contrasting strategies – diversification of worldwide portfolio and local responsiveness for Philips, and high centralization and mass production for Matsushita.
BMW having high market share in European and U.S luxury car markets, started facing issues with launch product qualities and also facing a fierce competition from Japanese producers. Currently the market share was still stable but the rigorous growth of Japanese producers would affect BMW in future. These Japanese competitors had set higher standards of conformance.
middle of paper ... ... It also analyzed the influences of modern dresses. As Palmer and Clark (2005) mentioned earlier, both decades are the classic era in fashion history.
However, the entry of Japanese companies posed a threat to the market share of Intel.