中小企業集団の構造

名古屋市西区菓子屋街の場合

抄録

This study, focussing on the problem of the stratification, intends to clarify the structural characteristics of a confectionary quarter.
1. The object of this study is the confectionary quarter at West district in Nagoya City, where ultra-small confectionaries aggregate densely around the whole sale shops. The origin of this quarter is old, but the change and mobility of shops have been so high, that there ramains few old established shops.
2. The problem of the stratification is the difficulty to deduce the indices of stratification from the concrete laws concerning the socio-economic conditions of those complicated and fluid small and middle businesses. So, we attempted to synthesize the stratum factor which the inhabitants conscious of, and to induce the stratum each confectionary belongs.
3. The proprietors of confectionaries were well aware of the existence of strata, and as the main stratum factor they mentioned capital, property, income, number of employees, years of experiences as confectionary, and the area of business connection. But their conception of the strata attaches too much importance to the economic factor and underestimate the social conditions.
4. We examined the correlation of those factors by the results of a sample survey, and pointed out one central factor common to producer as well as whole-saler, that is, the number of empoyees.
5. In order to clarify the strata distinguished by the number of employees, it became necessary to find out the stratum distinction line. So, we made the prorietors of the confectionaries judge the stratum demarcation line, upper, middle and lower, by the number of employees.
6. Logically, the strata thus distingnished by main factor of the number of employees represent approximately the reality of the strata in the inhabitants' subjective evaluation. So, whether the strata distinguished by the number of employees coincide with the strata distinguished by other factors, we attempted to verify statistically by the data of the sample survey and by the comparative rating method. Thus we proved the representativeness of the factar of number of employees.
Then, we studied the structural characteristics of the strata of the confectionaries distinguished by the indices of the number of employees, focussing on their ultra-smallness, fluidity on the whole and about each case.
8. Finally, as the starting point for the further research, we mentioned the theoretical remarks on the problem of the stratification and the relation of stratified position and social status.