Between two forces of restructuring: U.S.-Japanese competition and the transformation of Mexico's maquiladora industry

This study examines the impact of industrial restructuring and international competition on the regional development in the Third World. It is an attempt to contribute to the recent debate on industrial restructuring by examining competing theoretical perspectives. For this purpose, the case of the Mexican maquiladora industry is analyzed empirically because it is a representative case of the redirection of Third World industrial strategy in the 1980s.;The empirical analysis focuses on two specific sectors of maquiladora industry: (1) color TV and (2) wiring harness. These sectors are two of the largest sub-sectors in the maquiladoras and they include not only U.S. transnational corporations but also a significant number of Japanese rivals. The analysis consists of two parts: (i) the historical dynamics of competitive process between U.S. and Japanese firms at the global level; (ii) corporate specific strategies in local operation in maquiladoras at the levels. Both levels are analyzed in four dimensions: (a) technology; (b) organization; (c) space; and (d) labor. The data is compared by industrial sector and corporate national origin.;The first section of the analysis depends on secondary data; the second section of the analysis relies on field work. Managers in seven color TV assembly plants, eight color TV component plants, and nineteen wiring harness plants are interviewed in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Monterrey, and several small cities between August 1989 and October 1990.;The analysis shows that intensifying international competition between U.S. and Japan results in the accelerated incorporation of Mexican labor into transnational production system. The tension between different forces of restructuring is increasing in different dimensions: standardization v.s. flexibilization; transnational hierarchy v.s. local network; spatial decentralization v.s. reconcentration; disposable labor v.s. flexible labor. The analysis elucidates limits of current theories of industrial restructuring. Finally, this study demonstrates that present Mexican industrial policies failed to take advantage of greater opportunities offered by current phase of the global industrial restructuring.