The Japanese Business System: Key Features and Prospects for Change
Name
JP-WP-96-26.pdf
Size
2.7 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e2f0fbb9ff7a37e97496a8e337d3a694
Author(s)
Westney, Eleanor
Date Issued
1996
Publisher
MIT-Japan Program
Series/Report no.
MITJP (Series);96-26
Abstract
This paper argues that the Japanese business system cannot be adequately understood without
extending the focus of analysis beyond the individual firm to the vertical keiretsu, or business group. The vertical group or keiretsu structure was first identified and studied in the auto and electronics industries, where it is most strongly marked, but it characterizes virtually all sectors, service industries as well as manufacturing. Large industrial vertical keiretsu are composed of subsidiaries engaged in three distinct types of activities (manufacturing, marketing, and quasirelated
business). The coordination and control systems are built on the flows of products, financial resources, information and technology, and people across formal company boundaries, with the parent firm controlling the key flows. The paper examines the prevailing explanations
first for the emergence and then for the persistence of the vertical group structure, and looks at the current pressures for change and adaptation in the system.
Subjects
System
Business
Change
Persistent DSpace Link
