International marketing by Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises

我们的研究发现，西方趋势引领型企业和日本趋势跟随型企业之间存在着巨大的行为差距。设法增加产品价值的日本中小企业(SME)需要与西方潮流领导者合作。然而，日本中小企业在参加西方展会和接近西方潮流领先者方面受到限制。中小企业也被要求从趋势跟随者的行为模式转变为趋势领导者的行为模式，这对它们来说是一个巨大的挑战。因此，日本企业、行业协会和政府应该有效地促进日本的趋势创造。

Our research revealed that there is huge behavioral gap between western trend-leading firms and Japanese trend-following firms. Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that manage to increase their product value need to collaborate with the western trend-leaders. However, the Japanese SMEs are in constraint to joining western trade fairs and approaching to western trend leaders. And the SMEs are also required to change their behavioral patterns from that of trend followers to trend leaders, which is big challenge for them. Thus, Japanese firms, industrial associations, and government should effectively promote trend creation in Japan.