1,721,028 research outputs found
The comeback of the Swiss watch industry on the world market: a business history of the Swatch Group (1983-2010)
Get PDFThe objective of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of the comeback of the Swiss watch industry on the world market since the end of the 1980s. It focuses on the Swatch Group (SG), currently the world’s biggest watch company. In 1983, the merger of the largest watch group (SSIH) and of the trust controlling the production of parts and movements of watches (ASUAG) into SG was the main measure taken to overcome the Japanese competition. Managed since 1986 by Nicolas G. Hayek (1928-2010), SG experienced a high growth and recovered its competitiveness on the world market, becoming a driving force for the entire Swiss watch industry. This success is traditionally explained by the firm itself and by scholars as the result of the launch of a new product (Swatch, a cheap plastic quartz watch first marketed in 1983) and the persistence of an old technical culture in Switzerland which enabled this rebirth. This paper, based on SG annual reports, focuses on the strategy adopted by SG since 1983. It shows that, rather than product innovation (Swatch), it was the rationalization and globalization of the production system (concentration of strategic parts’ production in Switzerland; transfer of production facilities in Asia), together with a new marketing strategy (brand segmentation, distribution and retailing facilities, communication, etc.) which were the two main sources of the comeback of the Swiss watch industry on the world market. While Japanese still attach great attention to product innovation, SG largely established its competitiveness on non-technological innovation.Watch Industry; Switzerland; Swatch Group; Luxury Goods; Marketing Strategy
Luxury supply chain management
No full textThis innovative volume brings together contributions from leading experts in the study of luxury to present the full range of perspectives on luxury business, from a variety of social science approaches. The handbook is organized in five parts following the general introduction: part I introduces the Conceptual Foundations and the Evolution of the Luxury Industry, with a focus on the historical development of luxury and luxury business. Part II discusses Producing Luxury, with chapters on supply chain management, creativity and innovation, licensing, and systemic strategy. Part III tackles Luxury Branding and Marketing, including chapters on brand extension, heritage, consumer perception, and cooperation with artists. Part IV covers Distributing Luxury and analyses the role played by the major channels of distribution, like department stores, mono-brand stores, airport duty-free, and discusses intellectual property and country-of-origin labels. Part V concerns Globalization and Markets and includes chapters on the major luxury goods markets: the US and Western Europe, Japan, China, and India. Finally, part VI focuses on a broad variety of issues related to Morality, Inequality, and Environmental Sustainability. It discusses in particular inequality, counterfeiting, corruption, environment, and digitalization. The Oxford Handbook of Luxury Business is a necessary resource for all students and researchers of the field as well as for forward-thinking industry professionals.</p
How to Sail a Sinking Ship : Adapting to the Declining Competitiveness of the European Shipping Industry
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The Strategic Value of the Mono-Brand Store for European Luxury Fashion Brands
No full textMono-brand stores have traditionally served as the pre-eminent sales and distribution channel for luxury fashion goods. Although the emergence of digital sales channels platforms has certainly challenged the sales channel dominance of mono-brand stores, the consequential impact of digitalisation of luxury-brand selling has been to recast and intensify the strategic value of mono-brand stores, principally as a means of reinforcing, protecting, and communicating the luxury brand’s proposition across international markets. By drawing from and applying agency theory and institutional theory to an understanding of the role of the mono-brand store, we can gain insight into the evolution of the most traditional of luxury-brand distribution methods in the twenty-first century
European cartels and technology transfer: the experience of the rayon industry, 1920–1940
No full textThe view that European cartels facilitated the international diffusion of technology came to be widely held in the interwar era. 2 During the negotiations surrounding the shape of the post-1945 global economic order, AngloAmerican planners rejected schemes for the international extension of the Sherman Act on the grounds that the complete banning of international cartels would hamper the interchange of technology between Europe and the United States. 3 Through cross-licensing and other cartel understandings, and irrespective of growing international political strains, this interchange had in effect taken place in most innovative, high-tech industries (some of which were of the highest military importance) from the early 1920s well into the war years. 4 Yet despite its importance, the technological dimension of international cartels has generally been overlooked in postwar scholarship. Only in the past two decades has it begun to receive renewed scholarly attention. 5
Because it was one of the fastest growing high-tech innovative sectors of the interwar era, the rayon industry offers rich insights into the theme at hand. A fibre spun out of melted wood pulp, rayon was the first of a large and ever growing family of man-made fibres. 6 The industry made its appearance at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, experiencing impressive growth after the First World War. As Coleman pointed out, one crucial factor behind this growth was the international spread of rayon know-how in the years immediately after the conflict. 7 The industry’s main protagonists from the industry’s beginnings in 1895 included the British concern Courtaulds, the German firm Vereinigte Glanzstoff-Fabriken (VGF), and the French conglomerate the Comptoir des Textiles Artificiels (Comptoir), and these three firms remained key players for some time thereafter. They were joined soon after the First World War by a number of fast-growing firms in Holland and in the United States, but also in low-wages economies, such as Italy and Japan, and these new firms began to challenge the position of the first movers. More importantly, while entering this business, before and once again after the conflict, the leading rayon firms set up a European cartel, cooperating on the technological front. They jointly developed a viable spinning system before 1914, and continually exchanged know-how until the late 1930s
Industries and Global Competition
No full textChanges in the dynamics of economic activities since the last decades of the 20th century have yielded major changes in the composition of industries and the division of labor and production across different regions of the world. Despite these shifts in the global economy, some industries have remained competitive even without relocating their operations overseas.
Industries and Global Competition examines how and why the specificities of certain industries and firms determined their choice of location and competitiveness. This volume identifies the major drivers of this process and explains why some firms and industries moved to other parts of world while others did not. Relocation was not the sole determinant of the success or failure of firms and industries. Indeed some were able to reinvent themselves at their original location and build new competitive advantages. The path that each industry or firm took varied. This book argues that the specific characteristics of each industry defined the conditions of competitiveness and provide a wide range of cases as illustrations.
Industries and Global Competition
No full textChanges in the dynamics of economic activities since the last decades of the 20th century have yielded major changes in the composition of industries and the division of labor and production across different regions of the world. Despite these shifts in the global economy, some industries have remained competitive even without relocating their operations overseas.
Industries and Global Competition examines how and why the specificities of certain industries and firms determined their choice of location and competitiveness. This volume identifies the major drivers of this process and explains why some firms and industries moved to other parts of world while others did not. Relocation was not the sole determinant of the success or failure of firms and industries. Indeed some were able to reinvent themselves at their original location and build new competitive advantages. The path that each industry or firm took varied. This book argues that the specific characteristics of each industry defined the conditions of competitiveness and provide a wide range of cases as illustrations.
Industries and Global Competition
No full textChanges in the dynamics of economic activities since the last decades of the 20th century have yielded major changes in the composition of industries and the division of labor and production across different regions of the world. Despite these shifts in the global economy, some industries have remained competitive even without relocating their operations overseas.
Industries and Global Competition examines how and why the specificities of certain industries and firms determined their choice of location and competitiveness. This volume identifies the major drivers of this process and explains why some firms and industries moved to other parts of world while others did not. Relocation was not the sole determinant of the success or failure of firms and industries. Indeed some were able to reinvent themselves at their original location and build new competitive advantages. The path that each industry or firm took varied. This book argues that the specific characteristics of each industry defined the conditions of competitiveness and provide a wide range of cases as illustrations.
The Strategic Value of the Mono-Brand Store for European Luxury Fashion Brands
No full textMono-brand stores have traditionally served as the pre-eminent sales and distribution channel for luxury fashion goods. Although the emergence of digital sales channels platforms has certainly challenged the sales channel dominance of mono-brand stores, the consequential impact of digitalisation of luxury-brand selling has been to recast and intensify the strategic value of mono-brand stores, principally as a means of reinforcing, protecting, and communicating the luxury brand’s proposition across international markets. By drawing from and applying agency theory and institutional theory to an understanding of the role of the mono-brand store, we can gain insight into the evolution of the most traditional of luxury-brand distribution methods in the twenty-first century
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