Japanese Firms' Business Strategy in Developing the Middle-class Market in China and Thailand: From the Perspective of Organizational Learning at the Headquarters and Local Subsidiaries

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03947
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Management
• Research Institution: Toyo Gakuen University
• Principal Investigator: Li Xinjian 東洋学園大学, 現代経営学部, 教授 (30433684)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 申 美花 茨城キリスト教大学, 経営学部, 教授 (00543555) ; 今口 忠政 茨城キリスト教大学, 経営学部, 教授 (40102941)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 新興国市場戦略 / 中国市場戦略 / タイ市場戦略 / 組織学習 / 探索的学習 / 活用的学習

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, the researchers firstly summarized the strategic challenges that Japanese companies need to tackle in order to develop the middle-class market in emerging countries. Then, through comparative case studies of the competitiveness of Japanese companies, US companies, and Chinese companies in the Chinese market, the characteristics and limitations of the Japanese approach were clarified. Further, the researchers conducted questionnaire surveys on the business development of high-end and mid-price range markets in China and Thailand by Japanese companies, and received about 60 valid responses from each. The researchers classified organizational learning in the development of emerging markets into exploitive learning and exploratory learning, and obtained new findings on the preceding factors and effects of exploratory learning in particular, on the base of statistics analysis on the survey data.

Free Research Field

国際経営

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

日本企業の新興国市場戦略に関する文献は近年急増してきたが，新興国中間層市場に焦点を当てた研究は不足している．本研究で実施されたアンケート調査は新興国中間層市場開拓に関する質問項目を多く組み入れ，得られた調査結果は稀少価値があることが言える．さらに，事例研究，アンケート調査及び統計分析により得られた知見，とりわけ探索的学習の先行要因及び効果に関する結論は学術的価値が高く，日本企業の新興国中間層市場開拓ないし海外事業展開に有益な示唆を与えたと言えよう．