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World watch production today is concentrated in three countries: Switzerland, Japan and China. Former centres such as Great Britain, France, the United States and Russia saw the industrial manufacture of watches disappear from their territory during the twentieth century. How did this situation come about? The business of time aims to answer this question by presenting the first comprehensive history of the sector. It traces the evolution and transformation of the global watch industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, highlighting the conditions that enabled watch production to expand across the globe and revealing how multinational companies gradually emerged to dominate the industry.
Chanel suits, Louis Vuitton bags and Omega watches are now objects that embody a globalized material culture. Over the past 30 years, the luxury goods industry has undergone a tremendous expansion around the world. However, it remains largely dominated by European companies, ranging from diversified conglomerates such as LVMH and Richemont to independent companies such as the Italian fashion houses Armani and Ermenegildo Zegna, and industrial groups like Swatch and L'Oréal or new start-ups such as Richard Mille. How and why did these companies succeed? How did they manage to transform a sector previously dominated by small family firms into a global big business? Selling Europe to the World presents the development of the global luxury goods industry from the 1980s to the present day. It highlights the strategies implemented by a new generation of entrepreneurs and explains, beyond the glamorous image conveyed by luxury brands, the sources of success of these firms. An essential book for understanding the success of the contemporary luxury industry.
This book goes back to the origins of the transformation of health and medicine into a business, during the first part of the twentieth century, focusing on the example of Japan. In the past hundred years, medicine has gone from being a charitable activity to a large economic sector, amounting to 12–15% of the GDP in many developed countries, and one of the fastest-growing businesses around the world. Despite the mounting presence of the medical industry, there is a lack of academic work detailing this major transformation. The objective of this book is to fill this gap and address the following question: how did medicine become a business? Using over ten years of research in the field, Pierre-Yves Donzé argues that economic factors and business factors were decisive in transforming the way that medicine enters our lives. This book will be of interest to historians of medicine, business historians, health economists, scholars in medical humanities, and more.
This book offers an analysis of the dynamics of the global medical device (medtech) industry from the 1960s until the present, using the approaches of business history and industry studies. While most of the publications in the corresponding field have focused on particular countries/regions or actors, this research is unique in its scope. First, it explores the formation and development of medtech business both globally and in the major countries engaged in this industry (the United States, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, France, and China). Second, it tackles a broad range of actors and organizations, from individual entrepreneurs, medical doctors, and engineers to small family firms, start-ups, and large multinationals, as well as universities and research centers. Hence, for the first time, this book both provides a general understanding of the formation and transformation of the medtech industry throughout the world and sheds light on the main features of a fast-growing business in the twenty-first century. This book will be of value to historians, industry professionals, and analysts.
This book explores the luxury industry and how it has undoubtedly been one of the fastest-growing sectors since the 1970s, and one in which Europe has managed to strengthen its competitiveness in the world market. While many aspects of globalization remain abstract and intangible, the luxury industry has created markets where previously there were none, by educating Japanese about the history of French handbags, Chinese about the finest wines, and setting global standards for an elite, inspirational lifestyle. In this edited volume, a wide range of scholars comes together to analyze the history of the business and the innovations in management and marketing that have emerged from it. Invaluable for scholars, industry figures, and dilettantes alike, it will define the field of study for years to come.
The phenomena of Japan emerging as one of the most competitive industrial nations in the twentieth century and the general shift of competitiveness to East Asia since the 1980s have been widely studied by many scholars from different fields of the social sciences. Drawing on sources from Japanese, Swiss, and American archives, the historical analysis of this book tackles a wide range of actors and sheds light on the various processes that enabled Japanese watch companies to transfer technology and expand commercially starting in the second half of the nineteenth century. By exploring the case of the watch industry, this book serves to establish a better understanding of the origins of the competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing and its evolution until its decline in the post‐bubble economy (in the 1990s and 2000s).
This book offers a detailed and full analysis of the strategy which enabled the Swatch Group to establish itself on the world market. In particular, it tackles the issues of production restructuring, with the opening of subsidiaries in Asia, and the implementation of a new marketing strategy, characterized by the move towards luxury.
This innovative volume brings together contributions from leading experts in the study of luxury to present the full range of perspectives on luxury business, from a variety of social science approaches. Topics include conceptual foundations and the evolution of the luxury industry; the production of luxury goods; luxury branding and marketing; distributing luxury; globalization and markets; and issues of morality, inequality, and environmental sustainability. The Oxford Handbook of Luxury Business is a necessary resource for all students and researchers of the field as well as for forward-thinking industry professionals.
This book tackles the history of the Swiss watch industry in a global perspective: it gives particular attention to rival nations such as the United Kingdom, the USA and Japan. The author demonstrates how Swiss watchmakers succeeded in facing various challenges: the industrialization of production at the end of the 19th century, the delocalization of production in the interwar years and globalization since the 1960's. These challenges helped Switzerland to maintain and strengthen its position as a leader on the world market. This study shows how innovation and new technologies, the industrial policy of the Swiss authorities, the industrial district organization and the relations with trade unions explain the worldwide success of the Swiss watch industry.
This book offers an analysis of the dynamics of the global medical device (medtech) industry from the 1960s until the present, using the approaches of business history and industry studies. While most of the publications in the corresponding field have focused on particular countries/regions or actors, this research is unique in its scope. First, it explores the formation and development of medtech business both globally and in the major countries engaged in this industry (the United States, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, France, and China). Second, it tackles a broad range of actors and organizations, from individual entrepreneurs, medical doctors, and engineers to small family firms, start-ups, and large multinationals, as well as universities and research centers. Hence, for the first time, this book both provides a general understanding of the formation and transformation of the medtech industry throughout the world and sheds light on the main features of a fast-growing business in the twenty-first century. This book will be of value to historians, industry professionals, and analysts.