Book dossier

Competing through technology and manufacturing

by Sanjay Kathuria

Existing literature focuses almost exclusively on macro parameters. This study, a rare in-depth analysis of firms in a major industry in an industrializing country, satisfies the need for micro-economic studies of economic behaviour and performance. Kathuria analyses the different choices of firms in the commercial vehicles industry with respect to vertical integration and sub-contracting, production technology and product technological change. He also traces the impact of these choices on the domestic and international competitiveness of firms. He finds that firms have followed very different strategies leading to differences in their technological capabilities. The study highlights that the ability of firms to succeed with such vastly different strategic choices is largely attributable to the protected Indian market which created conditions of localized monopolies. Recent liberalization has already led to a greater convergence of these strategic choices. Kathuria draws on the recent literature on industrial organization and the new institutional economics as well as the economics of technological change. His work will interest students of industrial organization, management and applied economics, as well as those interested in the automotive industry.