IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jecrev/v54y2003i1p49-73.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Restructuring in Japan Part I: Can M‐Form Organization Manage Diverse Businesses?

Author

Listed:
  • Hideshi Itoh

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the recent organizational restructuring in Japan in the framework of organizational economics, assuming that the product/market portfolio of the firm is fixed. How does a firm set about organizing its internal divisions? I first summarize some stylized facts on corporate diversification strategy and multi‐divisional (M‐form) organization in large Japanese firms from different perspectives. I then analyse the problem of choosing an organizational form. In particular, I argue that, precisely because of its related diversification, the multi‐business Japanese firm adopting the M‐form finds it difficult to differentiate its diverse businesses internally.

Suggested Citation

  • Hideshi Itoh, 2003. "Corporate Restructuring in Japan Part I: Can M‐Form Organization Manage Diverse Businesses?," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 49-73, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jecrev:v:54:y:2003:i:1:p:49-73
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-5876.00245
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-5876.00245
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-5876.00245?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Toyohiro Kono, 1984. "Strategy and Structure of Japanese Enterprises," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-17627-4, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhonghua Wu & Andrew Delios, 2009. "The Emergence of Portfolio Restructuring in Japan," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 49(3), pages 313-335, June.
    2. Mari Sako & Gregory Jackson, 2006. "Strategy Meets Institutions: The Transformation of Management-Labor Relations at Deutsche Telekom and Ntt," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 59(3), pages 347-366, April.
    3. Kangsik Choi, 2022. "Organizational form and multiple exportable goods in export rivalry trade," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 90(5), pages 565-586, September.
    4. Fukui, Yoshitaka & Ushijima, Tatsuo, 2007. "Corporate diversification, performance, and restructuring in the largest Japanese manufacturers," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 303-323, September.
    5. Fukui, Yoshitaka & Ushijima, Tatsuo, 2011. "What drives the profitability of Japanese multi-business corporations? A variance components analysis," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 1-11, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ulgado, Francis M., 1997. "Location decision-making characteristics of foreign direct investment in the United States," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 271-293, June.
    2. Park, Namgyoo K. & Cho, Dong-Sung, 1997. "The effect of strategic alliance on performance," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 3(3), pages 155-164.
    3. Baruch A. Kipnis & Erik A. Swyngedouw, 1988. "Manufacturing Plant Size - Toward a Regional Strategy. A Case Study in Limburg, Belgium," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 25(1), pages 43-52, February.
    4. Skrynkovskyy Ruslan & Sopilnyk Lyubomyr & Heorhiadi Nellі & Kniaz Sviatoslav, 2019. "Improvement of the model of the innovative development of the production system of industrial enterprises," Technology audit and production reserves, 1(45) 2019, Socionet;Technology audit and production reserves, vol. 1(4(45)), pages 51-53.
    5. Skrynkovskyy Ruslan & Sopilnyk Rostyslav & Seliverstova Liudmyla & Koropetskyi Oleh & Protsiuk Tetiana, 2019. "Improvement of the system of indicators for the efficiency evaluation of the production capacity of industrial enterprises," Technology audit and production reserves, 2(46) 2019, Socionet;Technology audit and production reserves, vol. 2(4(46)), pages 49-51.
    6. Stuart Holland & Andrew Black, 2018. "Cherchez la Firme: Redressing the Missing – Meso – Middle in Mainstream Economics," Economic Thought, World Economics Association, vol. 7(2), pages 15-53, November.
    7. Michael Hechter & Satoshi Kanazawa, 1993. "Group Solidarity and Social Order in Japan," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 5(4), pages 455-493, October.
    8. John Benson, 1994. "The Economic Effects of Unionism on Japanese Manufacturing Enterprises," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 32(1), pages 1-21, March.
    9. Gregory Wegmann & Johei Oshita, 2018. "A comparison between Japanese and French cost management-Contingency and institutional perspectives," Post-Print halshs-01961763, HAL.
    10. Brouthers, Lance Eliot & Lamb, Charles W., 1995. "National ideology, public policy, and the business environment: A contingency approach to economic reform in Hungary, Poland and Eastern Europe," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 355-372, September.
    11. Hodaka Morita, 2002. "Multiskilling, Delegation, and Continuous Process Improvement: A Comparative Analysis of U.S.-Japanese Work Organizations," Labor and Demography 0207004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Hideaki Sakawa & Naoki Watanabel, 2021. "Family Control and Corporate Innovation in Stakeholder-Oriented Corporate Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-13, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jecrev:v:54:y:2003:i:1:p:49-73. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/jeaaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.