Subcontracting relationships between small engineering firms and large motor vehicle firms in the Coventry area (England)

Available from UMI in association with The British Library.; The thesis examines the changing nature of the subcontracting relationships between small precision engineering firms and large motor vehicle related firms in the Coventry local economy, over the post recessionary period of 1982 to 1987. The research adopts a realist philosophy of science and applies it to a study in industrial geography. It also combines the use of intensive and extensive research methods and techniques. Intensive, semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 59 local precision engineering subcontractors, three motor vehicle assemblers and one of the UK's 'big five' multinational component manufacturers. These interviews were used to determine the use of subcontracting and changes in its nature and extent over the study period. To provide a context for the study an original extensive computer databank analysis was undertaken, focusing in particular, on the changing structure of the small mechanical engineering firm sector in the local economy leading up to the study period.; The thesis contends that subcontracting relations between the study firms experienced a radical transformation over the study period; from a rather adversarial to a more cooperative type of arrangement. Accompanying the change in nature of the relationship was a change in the actual use of subcontracting as a strategy in the production process of the customer firms. Subcontracting had been used to supplement the in-house machine shops and toolrooms of the larger business organisations. However, by the end of the study period, many of these machine shops and toolrooms had been closed down and the subcontracting firms were used to replace the lost in-house capacity.; The thesis clarifies the contingent forms that subcontracting can assume, and how and why they are used by larger business organisations. The study contributes to the understanding of inter-firm relationships, and in particular to the understanding of intermediate forms of production that lie between vertical integration and vertical disintegration. The thesis identifies the existence of power relationships, that are not treated by current economic theory and describes how the power relations between different business organisations are exercised.