A Comparative Analysis of Transplants and Industrial Location of Japanese and Korean Automotive Industries in Europe

This study examines the experience of the Japanese automotive industry in Europe in the 1980s and attempts to compare the Korean automotive industry since the 1990s in search of strategic implications. The underlying assumption is that local production and transplants of Japanese automotive industry in the 1980s are critically related to the protective posture of the EU in the political economic context of the internal market. Based on this, this study argues that repetitive patterns of transition from trade to transplants is related to the contextual circumstance in Europe and this will provide a conforming case for the theory of off-shore manufacturing and important strategic implications for the Korean firms at their emerging status in European markets.