The regional nature of Japanese multinational business

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Collinson, Simon; Rugman, Alan M.
• 署名单位: University of Warwick; Indiana University System; IU Kelley School of Business; Indiana University Bloomington; University of Reading
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STUDIES
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2506
• DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400347
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 215-230
• 关键词: Japan; multinational enterprises; firm-specific advantage; regional strategy; structural contingency approach; internationalisation

摘要

In the world's largest 500 firms, there are 64 Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) with data on regional sales, but only three operate globally; whereas 57 of them average over 80% of their sales and foreign assets in their home region. Why is there such a strong intra-regional dimension to their activities? Using empirical data and a new framework for analysing both downstream (sales) assets and upstream (production) assets we analyse why most large Japanese firms appear to have firm-specific advantages (FSAs) that are based in their home region. A structural contingency approach is applied to two case studies to explain how home-region-bound FSAs constrained the ability of Japanese MNEs to implement internationalisation strategies.