In this paper, we present a new perspective regarding the introduction of intra-organizational competition to the organizational design of multinational corporations. In the multinational corporation, foreign subsidiaries build multiple organizational capabilities based on the locational advantages of various locations. With the assumption that this varieties of organizational capabilities exist, under high environmental uncertainty, a multinational corporation can raise the potential of adaptation to its environment through the introduction of intra-organizational competition between multiple locations. This paper will discuss the validity of this logic based on a case study approach of Showa Denko Company.

Many pharmaceutical companies are cooperating with each other aggressively. However, building trust is very tough because each company is independent from one another in domestic strategic alliance and it is even more complicated in international alliance. This paper investigates the effectiveness of trust in the Japanese-American strategic alliance. From the analysis of the questionnaires, we found out that trust based on partner’s ability is effective for the cooperation, and that those factors have great differences between Japan and USA.

For many regional areas without affluent business resources, or without any core competence, it is hard to survive in market globalization.
This paper describes two cases of regional flower-related industry business in Japan and China, to pursue some implications for those regions to survive by forming a core of regional value and growing it into strong competence of their local businesses. The cases implied that global collaboration can be one clue for such powerless regions to stand up and grow their core competence and original value in businesses. The concrete process of collaboration is analyzed in detail.

The existing studies on the cause of the international joint ventures’ successes and failures mainly take views from the stand point of the foreign multinational enterprise partners. This study approaches from the perspective of the Chinese partner, describes the initial conditions and main activities in the alliance process of Guangzhou Peugeot, and tries to analyze how the business and partnership of the company changed with time, what were the main factors that led the company to the failure, and how the failure experience later affected the development of the Guangzhou City’s passenger car industry.

This research considers how a firm’s competitive advantages deteriorate and core reversed, not at the level of elemental technology and product architecture, but at the level of business system. The different level of analysis could lead to different solutions. A firm’s challenges in adapting to changes in external environments are considered at two levels; “perception” and “action”. This research presents hypotheses of factors for deterioration/reversal of a firm’s competitive advantages, and examines the hypotheses by conducting a case study.

Cohen, March, and Olsen (1972), the proponents of the garbage-can model, develop a simulation model for examining decision-making in organized anarchies. From the simulation model, they conclude that unsegmented organization structure makes resolution of problems uncommon and increases decisions by oversight and flight. However, it would be natural that unsegmented structure enables many decision-makers to work together and enhances problem-solving performance. This study examines how unsegmented structure enhances or hinders problem-solving and what decision processes the structure causes, using a simulation based on Cohen et al. ‘s (1972) model. The simulation results of this study are as follows. (1) Unsegmented structure does not change the amount of resolution dramatically; rather, it improves problem-solving performance when the organization is not required to make decisions frequently. (2) The less unsegmented the organization structure becomes, the more problems become invisible and overlooked; that is, decisions by oversight increase radically. (3) The more unsegmented the organization structure becomes, the more problems become visible but come to remain unsolved; that is, decisions by flight increase radically. Finally, this study also discusses nonterritorial office cases as an application of the simulation results.

This paper will show, based upon the survey of the preceding research, surveys, academic articles and essays as well as the original analysis, that the post-war Japanese managers infringed upon the rights of shareholders. The Japanese Corporation Law stipulates three rights of shareholders in the article 105, number 1, as (1) the right to receive dividends from surplus earnings, (2) the right to receive distribution of residual property, and (3) the right to vote in the general meetings of shareholders. Among those three rights, the paper will focus on the right to receive dividends from surplus earnings and the right to vote in the general meetings of shareholders. In addition, it will focus on the right to maintain the percentage ownership in the corporation.