Industrial Relations and "Humanware"

This is a preliminary paper. Please do not quote without the permission of the author. The research on which this paper is based has been conducted with the collaboration of John Paul MacDuffie, MIT. The researchers owe much to the warm cooperation of managers, employees, and union officials of Japanese auto companies and joint venture companies in the U.S. as well as American auto companies and the UAW. We would like to express our sincere appreciation for their assistance.

Research Collaboration in Japan

This paper was prepared for delivery at the annual meeting of the Association of Asian Studies, Boston, April 11, 1987. A preliminary version was delivered to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Chicago, February 16, 1987.

The Japanese Business System: Key Features and Prospects for Change

This paper argues that the Japanese business system cannot be adequately understood without extending the focus of analysis beyond the individual firm to the vertical keiretsu, or business group. The vertical group or keiretsu structure was first identified and studied in the auto and electronics industries, where it is most strongly marked, but it characterizes virtually all sectors, service industries as well as manufacturing. Large industrial vertical keiretsu are composed of subsidiaries engaged in three distinct types of activities (manufacturing, marketing, and quasirelated business). The coordination and control systems are built on the flows of products, financial resources, information and technology, and people across formal company boundaries, with the parent firm controlling the key flows. The paper examines the prevailing explanations first for the emergence and then for the persistence of the vertical group structure, and looks at the current pressures for change and adaptation in the system.

Intercorporate Governance

This working paper was originally printed in the Working Paper Series of the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program

Supplier Relations in Japan and the United States

This working paper was originally printed in the Working Paper Series of the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program

Technology Supply Chains: An Introductory Essay

This working paper was originally printed in the Working Paper Series of the MIT International Motor Vehicle Program