Japan's Network Economy
Japan's Network Economy
Michael L. Gerlach, University of California, Berkeley
This book uses quantitative and historical methods to trace the evolution of the Japanese economy's business network from the prewar period to the end of the century. It addresses whether the controversial "keiretsu" enterprise groupings have outlived their usefulness and are withering away in the face of deregulation, globalization, and market liberalization. While concluding that these relationships are still central to Japanese business, the book also notes that they are much more subordinated to the strategies of individual enterprises than was true of the prewar network economy.
- The changing Japanese economy and the reasons for Japanese economic decline
- Wide interest in the topic of role of networks in global business practice and in economic efficiency
- Extensive analysis of data in drawing conclusions about the changing structure and functioning of business networks in Japan or elsewhere
Reviews & endorsements
"I highly recommend this book to students of formal network analysis, complex organizations and markets, and Japan. It inspires the reader's confidence that the years the authors spent studying keiretsu enabled them to really know what they are talking about"
-Robert M. Marsh, Contemporary Sociology
"The structural analysis and knowledge of the context works very well in combination to inform the reader of Japanese business networks, and the evidence Lincoln and Gerlach present supports a stronger role for the individual firm and its network position and a weaker role for the keiretsu as a unitary actor in understanding Japanese business networks...The theory of organizational networks thus seems to travel well across contexts."
-Heinrich R. Greve, Administrative Science Quarterly
"Japan's Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change is an ambitious, original, and meticulously researched analysis of the rise and fall and future of the great Japanese keiretsu...Supported by careful analysis, Lincoln and Gerlach get the story right and provide new insights into keiretsu behavior."
-Brian Uzzi, Northwestern University, American Journal of Sociology
Product details
April 2011Adobe eBook Reader
9780511207860
0 pages
0kg
This ISBN is for an eBook version which is distributed on our behalf by a third party.
Table of Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. The structural analysis of the network economy
- 2. The origins of Japanese network structures
- 3. The evolution of a corporate network: a longitudinal network analysis of 259 large firms
- 4. Exchange and control: explaining corporate ties: a longitudinal dyad analysis
- 5. Intervention and redistribution: how keiretsu networks shape corporate performance
- 6. Japan's next generation industrial architecture
- Bibliography
- Index.
