1997 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Component Sourcing Network Strategy and Firm Performance in the Japanese Auto Industry
| Project/Area Number |
08630116
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Business administration
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| Research Institution | Kobe University |
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Principal Investigator |
NOBEOKA Kentaro Kobe University, Research Institute for Economics and Business Administration, Associate Professor, 経済経営研究所, 助教授 (90263409)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1996 – 1997
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| Keywords | Automobile Industry / Supplier Relation / Supplier Network / Customer Scope |
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| Research Abstract |
First, this study analyzed sourcing strategy of six Japanese car assemblers regarding 95 components. We have found that firms using a broad manufacture-supplier network tend to be moreprofitable. In other words, firms with a low sourcing concentration and a high supplier sharing, which are the characteristics of quasi-market strategy, tend to perform better than the other firms.
The results in this study have implied that a few leading Japanese automobile manufacturers may have management capabilities in benefiting from both a relatively broad supplier base and cooperative relationship with individual suppliers.
Second, By analyzing data of 125 suppliers, this study has found that a supplier with a broad customer scope tends to be more profitable in the Japanese automobile industry. We have asserted that this finding implies that leading Japanese suppliers may have organizational capabilities with respect to managing cooperative assembler-supplier relationships with multiple customers, rather than only with a single keiretsu buyer. This study has argued that management at suppliers should simultaneously focus on benefiting both from inter-firm cooperative relationships and from economies of customer scope.
Lastly, this study has conducted network data analysis, which have provided us with some findings that the existing studies at the dyadic or interorganizational set level could not detect. The comparison of the U.S.and Japan in component transaction networks for 15 components has revealed : (1) The number of suppliers is smaller for Japan's sutomakers than for the U.S., (2) The number of customers is larger for Japan's suppliers than for the U.S., (3) Yet, the density of transactions is higher in the U.S.than in Japan, indicating component transactions are more dispersed in Japan, and (4) There are variances in the number of suppliers and customers, and the density of transactions among types of component as well as automakers within the country.
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