This book investigates the extent to which Japanese management practices and production systems have been adopted and adapted by firms on a global scale. The authors, Chris Smith and Tony Elger, utilize a comparative sociological framework to analyze the transferability of the 'lean production' model. By examining various industrial sectors, they argue that the diffusion of these techniques is mediated by local institutional contexts, labor relations, and existing corporate cultures rather than occurring as a uniform, inevitable process of convergence.

Experts in industrial sociology and labor studies recognize this work as a critical contribution to the debate on the internationalization of management practices. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose and the authors' rigorous approach to challenging the myth of a singular, dominant global production model.