Editorial

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The 2010 special issue of the International Journal of Automotive Technology and Management considers a number of policy-related themes. Gill Bentley, David Bailey and Alex de Ruyter (The MG Rover closure and policy response: an evaluation of the Task Force model in the UK) note that after several recent auto plant closures in the UK, the policy response has included setting up task forces to deal with the impacts of closure. Dan Coffey and Carole Thornley (Swing plants and punishments: a study of a Ford closure decision) appraise another British plant closure event in order to further develop another substantive area of policy research. In this study, the authors explore plant location decisions from the viewpoint of tacit bargaining games enacted between transnational producers and their more nationally rooted employees, under conditions simultaneously structured by global demand conditions. A major new study, by Ulrike Schaede (Globalisation and the reorganisation of Japan’s auto parts industry), next sets out the evidence that will overturn many of the conventional wisdoms about the organisation of the subcontracting structures of Japanese automotive producers. This important study amply demonstrates the value of an original sector analysis that can successfully integrate history with empirics and combine both with a cogent understanding of the frequently complex contexts that define corporate strategy.