Turning adversity into opportunity: Philips in Australia 1945-1980
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Philips Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Dutch MNE Philips Electronics, experienced difficulties during 1942–1943, when it came close to being nationalized as enemy property. In response, the company set out to improve its reputation in the local radio parts and electronics industry and in Australian markets. Its strategy of embedding itself in Australian society served the purpose of improving company performance and influencing the government policies that guided the rapid development...[Show more]
dc.contributor.author | van der Eng, Pierre | |
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dc.date.accessioned | 2021-03-18T23:17:03Z | |
dc.identifier.issn | 1467-2227 | |
dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1885/227557 | |
dc.description.abstract | Philips Australia, the Australian subsidiary of Dutch MNE Philips Electronics, experienced difficulties during 1942–1943, when it came close to being nationalized as enemy property. In response, the company set out to improve its reputation in the local radio parts and electronics industry and in Australian markets. Its strategy of embedding itself in Australian society served the purpose of improving company performance and influencing the government policies that guided the rapid development of Australia’s postwar electronics industry. With this strategy, Philips Australia minimized the risks and maximized the commercial opportunities it faced. The firm localized senior management, maximized local procurement and local manufacturing, took a leading role in industry associations, engaged politically influential board members, and used marketing tools to build a strong brand and a positive public profile in Australia. However, the company became aware of the limitations of this strategy in 1973, when a new Labor government reduced trade protection. Increasing competition from Japanese electronics firms forced Philips Australia to restructure and downsize its production operations. Despite increasing reliance on imports from the parent company’s regional supply centers and efforts to specialize production on high-value added products, the firm saw its profitability and market share in Australia decrease. | |
dc.description.sponsorship | Research for this article was financially supported by the ANU College of Business and Economics and the Australian Research Council, project LP0990000. | |
dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | |
dc.language.iso | en_AU | |
dc.publisher | Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Business History Conference | |
dc.rights | © 2017 The Author | |
dc.source | Enterprise and Society | |
dc.title | Turning adversity into opportunity: Philips in Australia 1945-1980 | |
dc.type | Journal article | |
local.description.notes | Imported from ARIES | |
local.description.notes | The case study is available as a working paper, http://hdl.handle.net/1885/229762 | |
local.identifier.citationvolume | 19 | |
dc.date.issued | 2017-09-05 | |
local.identifier.absfor | 150305 - Human Resources Management | |
local.identifier.ariespublication | u4854295xPUB53 | |
local.publisher.url | https://www.cambridge.org/ | |
local.type.status | Published Version | |
local.contributor.affiliation | van der Eng, Pierre, College of Business and Economics, ANU | |
local.description.embargo | 2099-12-31 | |
dc.relation | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/LP0990000 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.issue | 1 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.startpage | 179 | |
local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage | 207 | |
local.identifier.doi | 10.1017/eso.2017.12 | |
local.identifier.absseo | 920505 - Occupational Health | |
dc.date.updated | 2020-11-23T12:00:46Z | |
local.identifier.scopusID | 2-s2.0-85042685666 | |
Collections | ANU Research Publications |
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