Evolution of Companies in Traditional Manufacturing Sectors in Vorarlberg, Austria

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  • Yamamoto Kenji
    Kyushu University : Professor emeritus Teikyo University : Professor

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Other Title
  • 伝統的工業部門で進化したオーストリア・フォラールベルク企業
  • デントウテキ コウギョウ ブモン デ シンカ シタ オーストリア ・ フォラールベルク キギョウ

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Abstract

Vorarlberg in Austria is a remarkable region, because there are many excellent companies in various manufacturing sectors in spite of its remoteness from metropolises in the European scale such as Munich and Zurich as well as in spite of its small population, about 400 thousand in 2020. And the fact that the industrial structure of Vorarlberg was extremely specialized into the textile industry until the beginning of the 1980s makes it even more so amazing. There are several factors for the transformation of industrial structure and economic success of this region in the more and more globalizing world economy. Since 2015, the present author has investigated into the reasons, why there are so many excellent companies in so various industrial sectors in Vorarlberg, and He has studied literature at the Vorarlberg State Library and the State Archive as well as through internet. He could have interviews with the executive officers of sixteen companies with the assistance of the Chamber of Economy Vorarlberg in September, 2017, and visited their factories. In this paper, He focuses on the evolution of innovating companies in the traditional manufacturing sectors, so that it is a sequel to Yamamoto (2019 and 2020). This paper treats four companies: Rauch Fruchtsäfte GmbH & Co OG in the sector of beverages, Wolford AG in the textile industry, Collini GmbH in the surface treatment of metal and synthetic materials, and Rondo-Ganahl AG in the paper making and processing: corrugated boxes. Three of these four companies were established by the local people, while the founder of Collini GmbH was an immigrant from Trentino in the end of the 19th century. Three companies supplied the local market in Vorarlberg with their respective product at first, while Wolff & Co. KG., which was the former name of Wolford AG, targeted the Vienna market from the beginning, transacting with a merchant in Vienna. The four companies have actively invested in foreign countries on the basis of their own technology as well as of their respective marketing activities since the end of the Cold War. Rauch and Rondo-Ganahl directly invested especially in the former socialist East European countries. Collini established its own factories or acquired others in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. It recently invested even in Russia and Mexico, because it transacts with automotive-parts makers. Wolford also has its own factory in Slovenia. All these companies contribute to the economy of Vorarlberg by means not only of job supply for the local people but also of training of young apprentices who wish to get qualification in various technology as skilled workers. The companies have been recognized to be excellent in training of apprentices in the framework of the dual system for the vocational education by the joint committee of the Land Government of Vorarlberg, the Chamber of Economy and the Chamber of Employees in Vorarlberg. This excellence is also to be found in the other companies, with which Yamamoto (2019; 2020) deals. Collini and Rondo Ganahl have been honored as an excellent company for training of young apprentices respectively even by the Federal Ministry of Economy in Austria. While Wolford transacts with companies located now mainly outside Vorarlberg, it had developed new yarns in collaboration of local companies, and the other three have continuous transactions with other companies in this region. Collini’s important customers include two large local companies which manufacture hinges for furniture: Julius Blum GmbH and Grass GmbH. Rondo-Ganahl supplies many local companies with corrugated carton. Rauch is one of its important customers. Rauch transacts with a local company dealing with industrial wastes: Loacker Recycling GmbH, which acts not only within Vorarlberg but also in the other European countries. On the other hand, Rauch transacts with Red Bull GmbH, which is a very successful energetic drink maker and allocates its headquarters in the federal lan

Journal

  • 經濟學研究

    經濟學研究 87 (1/3), 31-66, 2020-09-23

    Society of Political Economy, Kyushu University

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