Journal of International Business
Online ISSN : 2189-5694
Print ISSN : 1883-5074
ISSN-L : 1883-5074
Volume 4, Issue 2
Displaying 1-25 of 25 articles from this issue
  • Article type: Cover
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages Cover1-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • [in Japanese]
    Article type: Article
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages i-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Index
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages Toc1-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Hiromichi MORIMOTO
    Article type: SPECIAL TOPICS ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 1-18
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    Japan electronics industry had established subsidiaries abroad by foreign direct investment, had been offshoring the production to counter a rise in the exchange rate of the yen and an import regulations. Offshoring, inducing the effect of intermediate goods export had brought to export electronic parts and devices consisting of key components, and let activation export despite the appreciation of the yen in progress, and industrial development has been constructed. Offshoring to overseas in the electronics industry is to reduce domestic employment temporarily, did not cause an industrial hollowing-out phenomenon, it is a dominant conclude in the previous studies. However, recent electronics industry tends to overseas production bases closed, production stops, to outsource the production. In addition, a trend overseas transfer of the production of electronic components and devices can accommodate appreciation for, or a divisional risk of the supply chain avoidance of astounding by the earthquake, and a trend to overseas transfer of production of Japan was left to electronics industry in recent correspondence to the phenomenal appreciation, electronic components and devices. Electronics companies are now reducing the domestic employment, improvement in profitability. Japan electronics industry has faced a new stage in the international division of production, increasing domestic employment while outsourcing abroad cooperately. Japan electronics industry shall ensure to migrate to the new forms of international business as well as a new basis for growth industry, as
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  • Kiyonori SAKAKIBARA
    Article type: SPECIAL TOPICS ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 19-27
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    The traditional studies of innovation have focused on the upward innovation, the innovation whose target is to develop high-end products. In the recent studies of innovation, however, the downward innovation, rather than the upward one,is drawing attention, as developing countries like China and India grow rapidly. The approach called glocalization that the established industrial manufacturers have adopted for the last decades-- developing high-end products at home and adapting them for other markets around the world 〜 will not suffice as growth slows in rich nations. To tap opportunities in emerging markets and pioneer new segments in rich nations, companies must learn reverse innovation: developing products in countries like China and India and then distributing them globally. This paper reports that the real examples of reverse innovationcan be found among innovations initiated by GE Healthcare and Honda Motorcycle. The new frontier of innovation emerges, which gives multinational corporations new opportunities and threats.
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  • Minheng HAN
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 29-45
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    This study focuses on the evaluation of Japanese expatriates' abilities, behavior and individual performance from the view point of their local subordinates in Japanese overseas subsidiaries of China. Data collected from 1,110 local employees working in 39 Japanese overseas subsidiaries were analyzed. Firstly, multiple regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between Japanese expatriates' abilities, behavior and their performance. The result suggested that in Chinese context, for middle level management, six clusters of ability and behavior (i.e., "interpersonal skills", "job ability", "information transmission capacity", "organizational responsibility", "open-mindedness", and "understanding of local situation") have significant relationship to expatriates' performance. On the contrary, for the top level management, "information transmission capacity" and "understanding of local situation" were found to have no significant relationship to expatriate's performance. Secondly, t-test was used to examine the differences in the above six abilities and behavior between Japanese expatriates and local managers with the same managerial rank. The result suggested that regardless of the managerial rank, Japanese managers' "organizational responsibility" was highly evaluated by local staff compared with Chinese managers. On the contrary, "open mindedness" of Japanese middle level managers was evaluated lower than Chinese managers. Thirdly, in order to indentify the differences of the evaluation between industries, t-test was also used for Japanese managers working in manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. The result shows that for top level managers working in non-manufacturing companies, "understanding of local situations" was evaluated lower compared to those in manufacturing companies. As for middle level managers working in non-manufacturing companies, "job ability" was evaluated lower compared with those working in manufacturing ones. On the other hand, the competency of "open mindedness" was highly evaluated compared to those working in manufacturing companies. Japanese expatriates' abilities and behavior are not only related to their performance, but it is also considered to be directly related to the motivation and performance of their local subordinates. By investigating the required abilities and behavior of Japanese expatriates for their individual performance and clarifying the evaluation of Japanese expatriates from local subordinates' point of view, this study will contribute to provide practical implications to the successful overseas assignment by Japanese companies.
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  • Tadashi HAYASHI
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 47-61
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    This paper explores the relationships among three fundamental determinants of knowledge spillovers that have hitherto been analyzed only separately: geographical,socialand technological proximity. Using a data set constituting of U.S. patent citations (cited, citing and control patents), we find that these determinants interact in surprising ways to explain different patterns of knowledge spillovers.Our results revealed that although geographical, social and technological proximity both increase the probability of citations between patents, the marginal benefit of social proximity is greater for patents which are technologically distant. They also showed that the marginal benefit of geographical proximity is greater for patents which are socially distant. Additionally, we reported that the marginal benefit of technological proximity is greater for patent which are geographically distant. These findings indicate that studying one of the determinants separately can yield biased results, as their net effect may change when the moderating effects of the other determinants are considered. Research on localized knowledge spillovers, regional industrial clusters, location choice of R&D and knowledge transfers by multinational enterprises therefore needs to be broadened by analyzing multiple determinants of knowledge spillovers.
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  • Koichi NAKAGAWA
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 63-78
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    From the statistic examination by 359 Japanese manufacturers, this study verified that the dispersed location strategy is competitive advantageous form over focused location strategy, in today's global business context. Firms chose dispersed form because it can respond flexibly to the quantitative growth and the qualitative diversity of global economy.
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  • YoungKyo SUH
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 79-91
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    In this paper we examine changes of mother plant system through the case of Toyota. Mother plant system is used for transferring production system in many Japanese firms. Mother plant supports production of foreign plants. After 2000's, Toyota's production in overseas grew rapidly. With growth of production in overseas, numbers of foreign factories grew too. When Toyota increases its production volume in overseas, many problems have been occurred. Global Production Center (GPC) is established to solve problems of mother plant system. GPC decreases burdens of mother plant and make home country's knowledge easier to transfer.
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  • Yasuro UCHIDA
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 93-113
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    This paper explores the relationship between user-driven standard and royalty-free (RF) basis of the international standardization. Recently, international standards have played a critical role in globalized businesses. However, this does not simply mean that we now have international rules denned in the TBT Agreement (Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade) by the WTO. Many Japanese manufacturers today struggle with approaches for generating revenues from innovative technologies, and hence, investigate a business model that utilizes international standards. Characteristics of modern international standards tend to differ from those of traditional de facto standards. In general, modern standards are predefined by consensus. With such practice, it is difficult to generate revenues. Hence, the best approach is to develop a business model that utilizes intellectual property (IP). International standards contain a variety of IP. This is why a business model that can associate IP with profit-making strategies has drawn attention, particularly among Japanese manufactures with innovative technologies. Recently, we have witnessed intellectual property on a RF basis. Typically, SDOs (Standard Developing Organization) promote the development of standardization, but for some cases, they require RF instead of RAND (Reasonable and Non Discriminatory Licensing). Such a trend indicates that companies with IP should review their existing business models. From the viewpoint of these issues, this paper specifically explores questions such as "what has caused this trend to emerge?" and "what would be the implication of this trend on companies owning IP?"
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  • Tetsuya Usui, Yasuro Uchida
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 115-132
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of resource strategies in the development of emerging markets. Shintaku and Amano, a major study on this issue, proposed that discontinuities in market conditions between developed and emerging markets interfere with the continuous exploitation of home-based resources in emerging markets. Based on the empirical evidence (for e.g., in the case of Shiseido and YKK) and existing literatures on strategic management and IB, we examined the relationship between the continuous and discontinuous use of home-based resources of MNEs in the development of emerging markets. In this article, we propose that there is a "width" to weigh placing on home-based resources in the development of emerging markets, which gives rise to three resource strategy issues. First, when a large weight is ascribed to home-based resources in emerging market development, there will be no serious strategic issues in resource utilization (for e.g., the case of Shiseido in China). Second, when a large weight is ascribed to new resources (i.e., weight of home-based resources is small), then the discontinuity of home-based resource transfer will cause an incompatibility dilemma between the home-based resources and newly developed resources (for e.g., the case of YKK in China). Third, in addition to this original discontinuity concept, if the cost of integration with new resources and the transfer of home-based resources are extremely high, then it may cause serious management problems. By analyzing a continuum framework of the continuity and discontinuity of home-based resource transfers, we believe that it is possible to provide a theoretical basis for the issue of resource strategy in the development of emerging markets.
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  • Satoshi YONEZAWA
    Article type: ARTICLES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 133-149
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    This article focuses on the human resource management of global maritime companies. The purpose of this article is to suggest some conditions under which maritime companies perform retention management of seafarers successfully. Most of the seafarers who work for major maritime companies are foreigners, and they make short term working contracts with the companies. Recently, the shortage of seafarers is a very serious problem, so that maritime companies face high competition to employ seafarers. Therefore, the retention management of seafarers is a very important issue for these companies. Then, this article discusses the theme mentioned above, in terms of case study and theoretical framework of retention management. I conducted interview researches to the human resource division of a major maritime company in Japan, its ship management subsidiary in Singapore, and also the seafarers working on a container ship that the company operates from Hong Kong to Kobe. I was on board the ship, and conducted interviews to all the crew who were Indian and Filipino. I comprehend the human resource management which effects retention of seafarers, and also retention factors which discourage turn over. Based on the research, the article discusses the conditions under which maritime companies perform retention management of foreign seafarers successfully. As a result, this article specifies six retention factors: safety management, salary, fairness and transparency of appreciation and promotion system, in-house training, advantages of maritime companies itself, management participation. And, I suggested the process from retention factors to retention performance in terms of commitment.
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  • Chitose FURUKAWA
    Article type: NOTES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 151-162
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
    JOURNAL FREE ACCESS
    This paper aims to explore the perception of team collective consciousness and diversity in functional multinational teams by means of comparison between the teams and different locations. With cooperation from a global software company, interviews were conducted with members of functional MNTs in two local offices at a global support organization which has applied for a matrix structure. In order to compare different nations, the Japanese office was chosen since the Japanese culture is considered to be typically collectivistic. The German office was also selected since the German culture is generally held to be an individualistic culture. In the Japanese office six functional MNTs and in the German office eight functional MNTs were chosen for data collection. First this paper reviewed the existing literature related to team diversity. Secondly, it explored similarities and differences between functional MNTs in each local office. Thirdly, it investigated similarities and differences of functional MNTs between the Japanese and German offices. From the results of this study, functional MNT leaders were found to play an important role in building team collective consciousness by coordinating social activities to mediate members' values of individualism and collectivism in the teams. In addition, nationalities and technical skills were commonly regarded as diversity in functional MNTs regardless of locations whereas physical distance and gender were considered only in the German office as diversity in functional MNTs. Some aspects of diversity have affected both tasks and team collective consciousness and therefore these aspects are likely to be categorized into both task-related diversity and social-oriented diversity. These results have many implications: first, that different aspects of diversity are likely to affect tasks and team collective consciousness; secondly, that the functional MNT leaders are likely to facilitate team collective consciousness that will eventually bring cooperation into their functional team and high effectiveness into cross-functional project teams for problem solving; and thirdly, it may be important to recognize members' perceptions of diversity of functional MNTs for managing and leveraging diversity in order to make cross-functional project teams effective.
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  • Mizuki KOBAYASHI
    Article type: NOTES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 163-174
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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    The purpose of this paper is to examine how firms deal with their partners from different countries by looking at their human resource practices. The research conducted a case study of three software firms in Dalian, China. Each of them is a typical firm in the Chinese software industry, and has business partners from various countries, such as Japan, Western countries and China. By describing differences of the partners' business practices, the study is able to clarify their impacts on the human resource practices of Chinese firms. The study indicates that the Chinese firms' human resource practices are affected by the differences of partner's business practices. In other words, the Chinese firms tend to adopt the similar human resource practice with their partners from different countries.
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  • [in Japanese]
    Article type: SERIES
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 175-186
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Bibliography
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 187-197
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 198-200
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 201-204
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 205-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 205-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 206-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 206-208
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages 209-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Appendix
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages App1-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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  • Article type: Cover
    2012 Volume 4 Issue 2 Pages Cover2-
    Published: October 10, 2012
    Released on J-STAGE: July 02, 2017
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