Business practices in Japan inspire fierce and even acrimonious debate, especially when they are compared to American practices. This book attempts to explain the remarkable economic success of Japan in the post-war period - a success it is useful to understand in a time marked by controversial trade imbalances and concerns over competitive industrial performance. Gerlach focuses on what he calls the intercorporate alliance, the innovative and increasingly pervasive practice of bringing together a cluster of affiliated companies that extends across a broad range of markets. The best known of these alliances are the "keiretsu", or enterprise groups, which include both diversified families of firms located around major banks and trading companies and vertical families of suppliers and distributors linked to prominent manufacturers in the automobile, electronics and other industries. In providing a key link between isolated local firms and extended international markets, the intercorporate alliance has had profound effects on the industrial and social organization of Japanese businesses. Gerlach casts his net widely. He not only provides a rigorous analysis of intercorporate capitalism in Japan, making useful distinctions between Japanese and American practices, but he also develops a broad theoretical context for understanding Japan's business networks. Addressing economists, sociologists and other social scientists, he argues that the intercorporate alliance is as much a result of overlapping political, economic and social forces as traditional Western economic institutions such as the public corporation and the stock market. Most compellingly, "Alliance Capitalism" raises important questions about the best method of exchange in any economy. It identifies situations where cooperation among companies is an effective way of channelling corporate activities in a world marked by complexity and rapid change, and considers in detail alternatives to hostile takeovers and other characteristic features of American capitalism. The book also points to the broader challenges facing Japan and its trading partners as they seek to coordinate their distinctive forms of economic organization.

Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese Business

Business & Money

Gerlach, Michæl L.

Economics

Univ. Of California Pr.

This book uses quantitative and historical methods to trace the evolution of the Japanese economy's business network from the prewar period to the end of the century. It addresses whether the controversial "keiretsu" enterprise groupings have outlived their usefulness and are withering away in the face of deregulation, globalization, and market liberalization. While concluding that these relationships are still central to Japanese business, the book also notes that they are much more subordinated to the strategies of individual enterprises than was true of the prewar network economy.

Japan's Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences, Series Number 24)

Lincoln, James R.

Cambridge University Press

<p>This book uses quantitative and historical methods to trace the evolution of the Japanese economy's business network from the prewar period to the end of the century. It addresses whether the controversial "keiretsu" enterprise groupings have outlived their usefulness and are withering away in the face of deregulation, globalization, and market liberalization. While concluding that these relationships are still central to Japanese business, the book also notes that they are much more subordinated to the strategies of individual enterprises than was true of the prewar network economy.</p>

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gerlach, Michæl L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gerlach, Michæl L.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gerlach, Michæl L.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese Business

Japan's Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences, Series Number 24)

Japan's Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, and Change (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences, Series Number 24)