Abstract
This paper examines the capital and transaction networks of the change in inter-organizational relationships of Japanese electronic equipment companies. I visualize and examine the group structures of Panasonic by social network analysis, using the data collected in 1997, 2000, 2003 and 2006. The findings of this paper are as follows. Panasonic has implemented restructuring of the business groups like that of U.S. companies after the financial deregulation in 1990s. As a result, the relative importance of Panasonic in capital network is increased while the importance of financial institutions is decreased. And the relative importance of Panasonic in transaction network is increased while the importance of Panasonic affiliated firms is decreased. From the short and middle- term perspectives, the reforms of Panasonic which improved the efficiency of management led to this firm’s business recovery. However, it is criticized that Panasonic couldn’t rebuild the competitiveness through the development of new products from in the long-term perspectives. For future work, I will examine the mechanism how these changes of inter-organizational relationships in Japanese electronic equipment companies have affected co-innovation with other cooperative companies.
