2003 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Can Japan Compete? Econometrically Modeling Japan's National Competitive Advantages and Disadvantages From Foreign and Domestic Firm Perspectives
| Project/Area Number |
14330040
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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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 | Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University |
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Principal Investigator |
THOMPSON E.R. Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, College of Asia Pacific Management, Professor, アジア太平洋マネジメント学部, 教授 (70343720)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
KUHARA Masaharu Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, College of Asia Pacific Management, Professor, アジア太平洋マネジメント学部, 教授 (00319485)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2002 – 2003
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| Keywords | National competitiveness / National competitive advantage / Business environment / Environmental munificence / Japan / Multinational firms / Econometric modeling / Multivariate analysis |
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| Research Abstract |
This project's aim was to model quantitatively the national competitive advantages and disadvantages of Japan using data gathered directly from domestic and foreign firms operating in the economy. In so doing, the research aimed to address more generalizable hypotheses relating to national competitiveness beyond the Japanese case. A grounded approach was adopted to generate content-valid independent variables direct from senior firm managers. These independent variables were then written into quantitative instruments that were administered to representative domestic and foreign firm samples. Dependent variables were selected from prior literature on firm performance and competitiveness.
Overall, more than 577,000 individual quantitative answers were provided by 3,798 individual questionnaire responses. Transformations to account for firm size, sector and other variables increased this number to just under 1,000,000 individual quantitative units of data. Additionally, 4,812 written respo
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nses were provided to qualitative questions by over 1,200 individual respondents.
Results indicate that a range of generic issues general to existing institutional theories of growth and comparative advantage are germane to Japan's competitiveness. Results tend to support the case that Japan is more competitive in a number of sectors than its general macroeconomic performance over the past decade or so would suggest. More broadly, a series of general hypotheses relating to differential degrees of competitiveness and the heterogeneity of firms along national, sectoral, size and other dimensions, most notably strategic orientation, are found to have substantial support.
A number of refereed conference papers have so far been produced from the research and several refereed international journal articles are under review or under preparation for review. Additionally, a scholarly monograph is under preparation for submission to a major international university publisher, and a more accessible, practitioner-oriented book of potential interest to senior business managers and public policy makers is planned. Less
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