ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy (1994)

Gary P. Pisano; Sharon L. Rossi

Case | HBS Case Collection | August 1994 (Revised May 2001)

ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy (1994)

by Gary P. Pisano and Sharon L. Rossi

Abstract

ITT Automotive is in the process of developing a new-generation antilock brake system (ABS), designated the MK-20. The case focuses on the level of automation to be used in the production of this new system, and whether all plants should use the same process technology. Due to intensifying cost pressure and rapidly growing demand for lower-cost ABS, the development team and senior management (based in Frankfurt, Germany) strongly favor using a single, highly automated production process in the four plants scheduled to produce the MK-20 (located in Germany, Belgium, and the United States). Managers at the company's two plants in the United States favor using less automation technology in order to allow greater flexibility for improving process technology over time.

Keywords: Technology; Innovation Strategy; Production; Product Development; Globalized Firms and Management; Performance Productivity; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Belgium; Germany; United States;

Format: Print

23 pages

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Citation:

Pisano, Gary P., and Sharon L. Rossi. "ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy (1994)." Harvard Business School Case 695-002, August 1994. (Revised May 2001.)

Working Paper | 2019

Long-Term Firm Growth: An Empirical Analysis of US Manufacturers 1959-2015

Giovanni Dosi, Marco Grazzi, Daniele Moschella, Gary P. Pisano and Federico Tamagni

Firm growth is an essential feature of market economies, shaping together macroeconomic performance and the evolution of industry structures. As a potential indicator of organizational “ﬁtness” within a competitive environment, ﬁrm growth is also a central concern to both the practice and theory of business strategy. Despite both its theoretical and practical importance, though, growth remains a poorly understood property of ﬁrms. While previous studies have documented the highly skewed nature of ﬁrm growth rates, we know far less about the persistence of growth rates over long-periods of time. For instance, do “fast growers” tend to maintain their relative growth rates advantages over long-periods or is superior growth a transitory phenomenon? Is, as predicted by evolutionary and capability based theories of the ﬁrm, the process of ﬁrm growth path-dependent or is it more akin to a random walk? The answers to these questions are central to building a robust theory of ﬁrm growth. This paper attempts to address this gap in our empirical knowledge of ﬁrm growth using a dataset that spans 50 years, which allows the abandonment of the assumption, common to all incumbent studies, that the stochastic paths of all ﬁrms stem from the same generating process. These exploratory results indicate that growth rate persistence is there and my be even substantial for some ﬁrms, but it is rare. We also study the links between the micro-properties of ﬁrm growth within sectors and the patterns of aggregate growth of these same sectors. Indeed, we ﬁnd circumstantial but widespread evidence that heterogeneity across ﬁrms correlates with industry dynamism.

Keywords: firm growth; Persistence; industrial dynamics; firm heterogeneity; Business Ventures; Growth and Development; Measurement and Metrics; Production; Analysis;

Citation:

Dosi, Giovanni, Marco Grazzi, Daniele Moschella, Gary P. Pisano, and Federico Tamagni. "Long-Term Firm Growth: An Empirical Analysis of US Manufacturers 1959-2015." Working Paper, May 2019. View Details

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ITT Automotive: Global Manufacturing Strategy (1994)

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