Fuji Business History – serie

Every economy faces a set of decisions about the optimal organization of its business activities. Firms acquire other firms, sell corporate assets, form strategic alliances, spin off factories and divisions as independent enterprises. In doing so they establish boundaries around business units and define the interrelationship between those units. Special attention has been devoted in recent years to the distinctive features of Japanese economic organization, and in particular the ways in which firms in Japan have created alternatives to arm's-length markets or vertically integrated hierarchies. This book brings together contributions from international scholars presenting analysis and evidence of these phenomenon. How have they evolved? Are they a particularly Japanese or Asian phenomenon? Are there historical comparisons in Europe and America? What distinguishes 'corporate complexes', 'corporate groups' and ' assembler- supplier relationships'? By raising these questions and presenting detailed evidence from the traditional business groups such as Mitsubishi, Sumitomo, and Mitsui; and the more recently established corporate groups such as Toyota, Sony, and Matsushita. In so doing the book both provides valuable historical detail, raises questions for conventional theories of the firm, offers insight into the resilient international competitiveness of Japanese companies and into the varying institutional characteristics of different business systems and cultures. This is the second volume in the collaboration between OUP and the Business History Society of Japan to publish the 'Fuji Conference Series' under the general editorship of Professor Akira Kudo of the University of Tokyo. The series itself has been established for 20 years or so and is a major international forum for scholars from Asia, Europe and North America. Books in the series were formerly published by the University of Tokyo Press.

All over the world proactive public policy in business is now under siege. Economists and policy-makers claim that the era of `Big Government' is over. However, nobody denies the fact that government has historically played a critical role in modern economic development. Given the profound changes of public policy agendas, this is an appropriate time to review the dynamic interaction between government policies and industrial developments from an international and historical perspective. Focusing on the so-called `Golden Age of Capitalism' the 1950s and 1960s and studying prime-mover countries (the US and the UK), followers (Germany, France, and Italy), and latecomers (Japan and Korea), Competing Policies for Competitiveness addresses the crucial questions to be asked; what appropriate roles should government be assigned, and which government actions are useful public policy and which represent unnecessary and harmful intervention? The book also attempts to utilize the Japanese case as an analytical reference against which experiences of other economies are examined.

Economic stagnation in the 1970s heavily influenced public perception of small business in the industrialized world. Suddenly, small businesses were seen as the dynamic creator of new jobs, as a source of new technology, as a flexible mode of organization able to outmanoeuvre larger firms, and as an important key to community revitalization. Because of its inherent diversity and complexity, however, small business does not easily lend itself to traditional quantitative consideration, and relatively scant scholarly attention has been paid either to the role of small business in the wider economy or to potentially valuable international comparison. In Small Firms, Large Concerns, G-7 researchers and scholars follow the process of small business development in North America, Europe, and Japan. They examine economic growth and social stability; the links between small and big business; and the resilience and vulnerability of small business management.Fuji Business History seriesGeneral Editor: Professor Akira Kudo, Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo Series Adviser: Professor Mark Mason, Yale University This is the third volume in the collaboration between OUP and the Business History Society of Japan to publish the `Fuji Conference Series' under the general editorship of Professor Akira Kudo. The series itself has been established for more than twenty years and is a major international forum for scholars from Asia, Europe, and North America. Books in the series were formerly published by the University of Tokyo Press.

Entrepreneurship is at the top of the social, political, and economic agenda. It is seen as essential to economic growth and, as a result, policy-makers worldwide are devising strategies that encourage and promote entrepreneurial activity. However, despite the importance attached to entrepreneurship in innovation and economic growth, the entrepreneur remains a strangely elusive and intriguing character.While entrepreneurship has been examined previously from the standpoint of various disciplines such as economics and sociology, this volume focuses on entrepreneurship and the entrepreneurial organization from a business history perspective. Well-known international scholars place entrepreneurship in recent historical context and explore organizational innovation in firms from different sectors in America, Europe, and Japan. The coverage spans the entire twentieth century, from the beginnings of the radio communications industry in Europe to the computer networking industry of Silicon Valley, and includes chapters on Bill Gates and Microsoft, corporate renewal in Sony and Samsung, and R&D and leadership succession in large British companies, such as Glaxo, Courtaulds, and Unilever. Other chapters throw light on companies and sectors that are perhaps unfamiliar to English-language readers, such as the German retailing sector, the Spanish motor industry, and Japan's video game business.Three broad themes are addressed in the volume. The first examines the role of the entrepreneur in the creation of new firms and industries, arguably the raison d'être of the entrepreneur. It does so by looking at entrepreneurship in five separate sectors in different countries. The second theme addresses the institutional and organizational factors facilitating entrepreneurship and innovation, for example the role of the venture capital industry, the 'hiving-off' process of entrepreneurship, and corporate renewal by internal entrepreneurship. The final theme investigates entrepreneurship in periods of transition, looking in particular at organizations in Britain and Japan to illustrate examples of corporate success and failure in making transformation.