The rebirth of mazda under ford’s shadow

Abstract

Mazda has a storied tradition in the auto industry (Shimokawa, 1994). While Mazda’s production of three-wheel motor vehicles for the Japanese market began in 1931, and four-wheel vehicle production began in 1960, Mazda is probably most well known for its successful development of the rotary engine in the mid-to-late 1960s. Yet as of the early-to-mid-1990s, Mazda was a severely struggling automaker burdened with poor profit performance, a heavy debt load, an inconsistent product message and an over-extended product line (see Hino, 2006: 177, 200).