Japan's Network Economy
Structure, Persistence, and Change

This book traces the evolution of Japanese business networks from the prewar period to the end of the century.

James R. Lincoln (Author), Michael L. Gerlach (Author)

9780521453042, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 August 2004

430 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.8 kg

'The literature on Japan's corporate networks has reached full maturity with Japan's Network Economy. In many ways a sequel to Gerlach's Alliance Capitalism and Lincoln's earlier journal publications, this book represents scholarship at its best - combining qualitative evidence with formal network analysis applied thoroughly, for the first time, to both horizontal and vertical keiretsu structures. The result is a compelling story about a subtle, but real, transformation in Japan's corporate network landscape.' Mari Sako, Said Business School, University of Oxford

Japan's economy has long been described as network-centric. A web of stable, reciprocated relations among banks, firms, and ministries, is thought to play an important role in Japan's ability to navigate smoothly around economic shocks. Now those networks are widely blamed for Japan's faltering competitiveness. This book applies structural sociology to a study of how the form and functioning of this network economy has evolved from the prewar era to the late 90s. It asks whether, in the face of deregulation, globalization, and financial disintermediation, Japan's corporate networks - the keiretsu groupings particularly - have 'withered away', losing their cohesion and their historical function of supporting member firms in hard times. Using detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis, this book's conclusion is a qualified 'yes'. Relationships remain central to the Japanese way of business, but are much more subordinated to the competitive strategy of the enterprise than the network economy of the past.

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.

Subject Areas: Business & management [KJ], Economic systems & structures [KCS], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], Economics [KC]