Component Sourcing Network Strategy and Firm Performance in the Japanese Auto Industry

首先，本研究分析了六家日本汽车装配商的采购策略，涉及95个零部件。我们发现，使用广泛的制造供应商网络的公司往往更有利可图。也就是说，具有准市场战略特征的低采购集中度和高供应商共享度的企业往往比其他企业表现更好。本研究的结果表明，少数领先的日本汽车制造商可能具有管理能力，可以从相对广泛的供应商基础和与个别供应商的合作关系中受益。其次，通过对125家供应商的数据分析，本研究发现，在日本汽车行业中，客户范围广的供应商往往更有利可图。我们已经断言，这一发现意味着领先的日本供应商可能具有管理与多个客户合作的组装商-供应商关系的组织能力，而不仅仅是与单一的经联买家。本研究认为，供应商的管理应同时注重从公司间合作关系和客户范围经济中获益。最后，本研究进行了网络数据分析，提供了一些现有研究在双元或组织间集水平上无法发现的发现。对美国和日本15个零部件交易网络的比较显示：(1)日本汽车制造商的供应商数量比美国少；(2)日本供应商的客户数量比美国多；(3)但美国的交易密度比日本高，表明零部件交易在日本更为分散；(4)供应商和客户数量、零部件类型之间的交易密度以及国内汽车制造商之间的交易密度存在差异。

First, this study analyzed sourcing strategy of six Japanese car assemblers regarding 95 components. We have found that firms using a broad manufacture-supplier network tend to be moreprofitable. In other words, firms with a low sourcing concentration and a high supplier sharing, which are the characteristics of quasi-market strategy, tend to perform better than the other firms.The results in this study have implied that a few leading Japanese automobile manufacturers may have management capabilities in benefiting from both a relatively broad supplier base and cooperative relationship with individual suppliers.Second, By analyzing data of 125 suppliers, this study has found that a supplier with a broad customer scope tends to be more profitable in the Japanese automobile industry. We have asserted that this finding implies that leading Japanese suppliers may have organizational capabilities with respect to managing cooperative assembler-supplier relationships with multiple customers, rather than only with a single keiretsu buyer. This study has argued that management at suppliers should simultaneously focus on benefiting both from inter-firm cooperative relationships and from economies of customer scope.Lastly, this study has conducted network data analysis, which have provided us with some findings that the existing studies at the dyadic or interorganizational set level could not detect. The comparison of the U.S.and Japan in component transaction networks for 15 components has revealed : (1) The number of suppliers is smaller for Japan's sutomakers than for the U.S., (2) The number of customers is larger for Japan's suppliers than for the U.S., (3) Yet, the density of transactions is higher in the U.S.than in Japan, indicating component transactions are more dispersed in Japan, and (4) There are variances in the number of suppliers and customers, and the density of transactions among types of component as well as automakers within the country.