Determinants of Comparative Advantages and Disadvantages in the IT Industries in Japan

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The objective of this project was to investigate the determinants of comparative advantages and disadvantages in the IT industries in Japan, that is to say, to characterize what is called Japan-type corporations. The main focus was to consider information media used for the governance and decision making in Japan-type corporations. In particular, we tested the following hypothesis : "Japanese IT corporations, on the one hand, have comparative advantages in producing small and integrated products such as parts and equipment for computers and other electronic products." Japanese corporations exhibit the capability of deep coordination, which is useful in the production of small and integrated products. On the other hand, Japanese corporations are not so good in open and wide coordination ; as a consequence, Japanese corporations have comparative disadvantages in producing what is called network-type products such as computer softwares and telecommunications-network services. One of the major reasons of this lies in that, in Japanese corporations, the use of documented information is limited at a level far lower than in western corporations ; it is understood that the use of documented information is necessary for conducting wide and open coordination.In this project, evidences are collected to prove the hypothesis stated above affirmatively. The evidences collected, although still at the level of fragmented information, are composed of 'documents used for public regulation', particularly in telecommunications, by the Japanese and U.S.government, "text-book materials representing the essential contents of corporate governance in U.S. and Japan". It is found that, for both of the two cases, U.S.documents exhibit more systematic and extensive compositions and contents, which are considered to be the basis of wide coordination in U.S.governments and corporations.