The Development of the Automobile Industry and the Manufacturers’ Response: Toyota Taken as the Example

• Main Authors: Yu-Ting Chuang, 莊喻婷
• Other Authors: Fong-Chi Tsai
• Format: Others
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/16796775745057463107

碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 應用日語學系碩士班 === 98 === At the beginning of 2008, rising prices for raw materials and petroleum, together with the bankruptcy declaration by the USA investment bank, Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LHB), in September caused a financial storm and economic crisis across the world. Without a doubt, the automobile industry was greatly affected and even Japan inevitably found itself in a difficult position as a result. Over the years, people''s concern with the Earth’s environmental issue has continued to strengthen, but people also noticed that although automobiles have become indispensable transportation tools in daily life, they generate problems such as air pollution and depleting resources. From the perspective of environmental protection, Japanese enterprises had already commenced the development of “low-emission vehicles” (so-called eco-friendly vehicles) and possessed advanced relevant technology. Among these enterprises, the future development of Toyota, the largest enterprise in Japan with global sales exceeding those of America’s General Motors (GM) at the beginning of 2008, but was similarly stuck with an operating deficit due to the financial tsunami, has received international attention. In this study, the history of Toyota was reviewed and it is clear that Toyota has experienced countless crises during the process of development. Through comparisons of the 3 deficit crises, it was found that the crisis response of Toyota was preceded by a particular operation philosophy and enterprise culture, which not only revealed Toyota’s strength in turning crises into opportunities numerous times, but also resulted in stronger competitiveness for Toyota. Furthermore, to analyze the competitive environment and competitiveness of Toyota, the theory of competitive strategy was used in the study to highlight its strengths and weaknesses. Judging from the analytical results, the operation system at present is definitely a major weakness for Toyota. Speaking of future development trend in automobile industry, however, Toyota’s excellent R&D has yielded hybrid technology in advance of much of the competition, providing Toyota with a timely competitive advantage. Through a combination of reviewing the history of industrial development in conjunction with the theory of competitive strategy in this study, it was realized that Toyota’s competitiveness results from the following critical abilities: crisis response, environmental operation and development of advanced technology. Toyota is expected to act as the role model for sustainable development and for the future automobile industry, and also make a socio-economic contribution.