Sources of global competitiveness of Japanese manufacturing firms.

This dissertation analyzes the sources of Japanese manufacturing firms' success in global markets. A main purpose of the research is to explain the link between domestic competitive factors and the international strategies of Japanese firms. It attempts to explain (1) the relative success of specific firms compared to other firms in the same domestic industry, and (2) The globally successful firms in general, while taking account of the industry specific factors by identifying some of the most important factors on the level of the firm. The main factors identified are domestic competitive position and the role of research and development (R and D). First, a conceptual analysis of the simultaneously competitive and cooperative behavior of large Japanese firms is presented. The firm's length of time in a market and the product's age are the major aspects of this analysis of competition in the domestic market. Second, domestic competition between Japanese firms is analyzed statistically with respect to the market share of each firm and the membership in an industrial group. The result of the multiple regression analysis suggests that a domestic leader has less export intensity than do domestic followers in an industry. Because followers' sales are blocked by leader's strong control over the domestic market, the only way for the followers to grow is to go abroad. However, much smaller firms, (minors) export less than do other followers. The industrial group affiliation however does not affect export performance in general, based on data from 1971, 1975, 1980, and 1983. Third, product and process innovations and /or improvements are analyzed as critical sources of competitive advantage in the global market. Analysis of 1983 data reveals a positive relationship between exports and R and D expenditures, after controlling for the size effect of firms. The concluding section points out the critical sources of competitiveness of Japanese firms based on the above analyses. It also discusses the implications of Japanese firms' international strategy.PhDManagementUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162059/1/8907057.pd