Title: Philips vs. Matsushita: a critical review and comparison

Authors: Yian Chen; Victor Chang

Addresses: School of Business, Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg, SE 405 30, Sweden ' School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BX, UK

Abstract: This paper examines the rise of two global companies Philips and Matsushita. The aim is to identify factors that contributed to the companies becoming the most successful in the industry. Furthermore, it evaluates and analyses the strategic choices the companies have made from the start of the establishments until the beginning of the new millennia. This paper aims to analyse how these strategies helped Matsushita overtake Philips as number one in the consumer electronics industry. However, the evolved organisational structure also creates disadvantages for the company to speed up growth. Finally, in the last part of this report, recommendations are made for Matsushita about appropriate strategies that can be adopted in the new millennium.

Keywords: Philips and European manufacturing; Matsushita and Japanese manufacturing; Philips and Matsushita comparison; centralisation and decentralisation in management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEBR.2020.110418

International Journal of Economics and Business Research, 2020 Vol.20 No.3, pp.243 - 254

Received: 15 Nov 2019
Accepted: 27 Mar 2020
Published online: 19 Oct 2020 *

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