2000 Volume 9 Issue 1 Pages 113-132
Alliances between companies such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and tieups are increasing in Japanese industries. Differentiation and cost-leadership are some of the reasons for the alliances, and in many cases, cost reduction is their main purpose. So, in this paper, the relationships between these 4 factors are discussed. They are types of alliance (M&A, tie-up), performance of the companies, stages of market environment (growth, maturity, decline), and objects of cost reduction (upstream cost, middle-stage cost, lower stream cost). The log-linear model is used for analysis, and the resource of data is based on the Questionnaire Concerning Corporate Activities by the Economic Planning Agency.
The findings in a this analysis are: In the maturity market, for getting a better performance of short term, it is more effective to carry out M&A with a reduction of the middle-stage cost. But for long term better performance, tie-ups with a reduction of the middle-stage cost are more effective. On the other hand, in the growth market, M&A with a reduction of the upstream costs is effective for short term better performance.
