Case Studies In Japanese Management

This book provides a new opportunity for corporate strategy analysis within a Japanese context. It is the first academic textbook to be published in English which regroups case studies to emphasize key concepts in Japanese management. Where previous literature has set a separate focus on cultural, managerial and strategic variables, a holistic look is now taken at their influence on effective decision-making. Over 11 detailed cases depict issues in entering the Japanese market, strategic issues when managing in Japan, marketing management, crisis management, cross-cultural encounters and future technologies. The sophistication and depth of these studies, along with their teaching notes, provide the basis for pragmatic analysis. The mysticism surrounding Japanese culture seems magnified by the success of Japanese companies abroad, and the shortcomings of many MNEs that entered Japan ineffectively. Studying the empirical implications of these issues is a helpful exercise to develop more acute management reflexes in a Japanese setting. The book's carefully laid out cases will benefit business and humanities students who are researching Japan, as well as professionals who work within this sphere.

Providing rare insight into the topic of Japanese management, this book looks at how Japanese companies changed after the economic recession of the 1990s and the decade-long restructuring process. With 12 case studies, this book investigates crisis management, strategy development, merger and globalization in a structured and descriptive manner. It aims to support students and decision-makers to learn more about strategic Japanese management and effective decision-making.

This book provides a new understanding of the constellations of logics in Japanese management practices in Asia and the West. Through comparative ethnographic case studies in a Japanese multinational corporation (MNC), the book explores the cultural meanings of family, corporation, market and religion logics at each subsidiary’s site in Thailand, Taiwan, Belgium and the United States. In doing so, the book defines cultural space through an institutional logic approach. It argues that logics are culturally interpreted, which can impose a serious limitation on the institutional logic approach based on the analysis of Western society. It reveals that Japanese ‘family’ logics and Theravada Buddhism in Asia are strengthening each other and this directly supports the presupposition of amplification. It further elaborates on the ongoing constellations of logics that are continuously formed in relation to geographical contexts. The book also explains that the boundaries of organisational communities are not automatically formed by Japanese expatriates but constructed through actors’ profiles, which, in turn, raises their importance. Therefore, this book is a must-read for researchers, managers and anyone interested in Japanese MNCs.

Provides an opportunity for corporate strategy analysis within a Japanese context. This textbook regroups case studies to decorticate key concepts in Japanese management. It also includes over 11 cases that depict issues in entering the Japanese market, strategic issues when managing in Japan, marketing management, and crisis management.

There is a lack of knowledge on how corporations in Asia develop strategies, organize their work processes and deal with competition. Western managers and business students need to know more about Asian corporations and their management styles. Learning about Asia, however, has always been a challenging task. The main challenge is the complexity encountered when dealing with Asian management issues, which differ not only for different countries, but also for different types of businesses, not to mention national management preferences and styles. This book tries to fill this gap, by presenting case studies of various Asian countries including China, Japan, India, Korea and The Philippines. The case studies are as diverse as management activities in Asia can be and include a variety of different companies in several Asian countries. This book attempts to present an overview on the variety and complexity of management and business processes in Asian countries. It intends to support business people and students of international management to get a deeper understanding of Asian management practices by presenting practical examples of Asian firms and their strategies.

With the service industry taking up the largest portion of its GDP, Japan has much to share in the area of managing service industry. This book explores and elucidates the unique management styles in non-manufacturing industries or service industries in contemporary Japan, both practically and theoretically through case studies. These specially selected cases are the management of the world No.1 convenience store chain of Seven-Eleven, the sales finance business and auto sales business of Toyota, application of TPS (Toyota Production System) to life insurance company, performance evaluation of local government, BSC (balance scorecard) in local government hospitals, cost and pricing policy of telecommunication company, Japanese-style OC hospitalityOCO in the retail industry, service level agreement (SLA) in IT and shared service companies, and ICT (Information & Communication Technology) applied to BPN (Business Process Network) of service industry.The analyses presented in this book were carefully laid out in regard to the business in general. It will be useful for business practitioners in service industry and beneficial to the scholars, students or general readers interested in this area.

This case book on Japanese companies and multinational corporations in Japan presents 12 entirely new cases studies for academics and business professionals alike. The cases in the book deal with market entry, corporate growth and crisis management of Japanese firms or international firms in Japan. It presents new developments, such as technological changes (electronic payment and gaming) in the Japanese business environment and provides an overview on the diversity of business activities in the Japanese economy. Written in a simple and an accessible manner, this book can be used as a textbook for students of International, Asian or Japanese management or by international managers and business professionals to make business decisions.

This book investigates how different types of Japanese management systems are able to motivate stakeholders, including employees, top management, stockholders, customers and transaction partners, to participate actively in the organizational behavior that improves business performance.The various systems motivating stakeholders are examined in five sections: Strategy and Business Restructuring for Enhancing the Business Value; Management Control Systems and Budgeting; Cost Management; Management Accounting for Supply Chain and Shared Services; and Process Management.