Alliance Capitalism---The Organizational Structure of Japanese Enterprises

Author: Michael L. Grack
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-09-01
Features: Based on the need to comprehensively and correctly understand capitalism in order to learn from and adopt all the civilized achievements of capitalist society and build a superior society, this Contemporary Capitalism Research Series is launched for the reference of readers with the strong support of Chongqing Publishing House. This series primarily translates the works of foreign scholars on various aspects of contemporary capitalism, and will also introduce some research by Chinese scholars on contemporary capitalism when appropriate. I firmly believe that knowing oneself as well as others will help our socialism with Chinese characteristics seize opportunities and withstand challenges, thereby accelerating our development and gaining the initiative in the world development landscape of the coming new century, placing us in a more favorable position.
The characteristics of interfirm relationships in the contemporary Japanese economy are that companies or enterprises are embedded in a network of cooperation and competition linked through complex coordination structures. This book conducts a special study on the interfirm alliances or corporate groups that constitute this structure. It examines in detail the formation, operation, and functions of the organizational structure and cooperative grid of this alliance capitalism, explores the relationship between the environment of Japanese enterprises and their internal organization, and compares their ownership models with those of American enterprises. The study shows that the prevalence of alliance forms in Japanese economic organizations not only determines the nature of enterprises but also determines the nature of their markets.