What future for car manufacturers ? Imitation or assertion of identity ?

After the upheavals of the 1980s, the American and European manufacturers started imitating the "Japanese model", heralded and described by MIT researchers as the "model of the 21st century ". However, the Japanese manufacturers almost folded… Western manufacturers therefore distanced themselves from the Japanese model and at the same time recovered from the earlier recession. They are now the key players in mergers and acquisitions. But is this not just a new trend ? Studies by the French GERPISA, an international research network, suggest that reading the productive models on which manufacturers often subconsciously rely, helps develop their strategies. They highlight contradictions in current alliances and show that no one model is the best over a long period of time. Pierre Beuzit comments on this discussion, which gives some background detail on the Renault-Nissan alliance.