As U.S. and European automobile producers found their levels of growth and profitability declining during the 1980s while Japanese firms continued to expand or at least maintain production levels, numerous researchers launched studies that probed the management systems of these companies and compared their performance in manufacturing. Several studies found remarkably high levels of productivity and quality from a handful of producers, primarily in Japan, which passed the United States in automobile production in 1980 and by the end of the decade boasted five of the top dozen auto manufacturers in the world (Table 5.1), as well as the top five automakers with the highest growth rates among producers of one million or more vehicles between 1970 and the end of the 1980s (Table 5.2). Apart from general studies of company practices and government policies, strategic and organizational explanations of elements behind the performance of Japanese firms in the automobile industry focused on the integration of workers and suppliers as well as on the development and systematic application of innovative managerial and quality-control techniques for manufacturing (Aizcorbe, Winston, and Friedlaender, 1977; Cusumano, 1985, 1988; Harbour, 1981; Krafcik, 1988; Lieberman, Lau, and Williams, 1989; National Academy of Engineering, 1982; Shimada and MacDuffie, 1986).