R&D spending, domestic competition, and export performance of Japanese manufacturing firms

Article Abstract:

An examination of the 1983 export sales of 271 Japanese manufacturing firms in 54 industrial sectors reveals that export sales are linked to three main factors: firm size, firm-level R&D expenditures and industry-level R&D intensity. Moreover, the ratio of exports to total production is shown to increase with firm size, with export ratios among follower firms being generally higher than that of market leaders. However, no link between export ratios and the R&D expenditures at either the firm level or the industry level is observed. These observations aresignificant since they lend support to the proposition that the success of Japanese firms in penetrating international markets is more appropriately explained by the high level of technological innovation in the domestic Japanese market, rather than to the use of technology borrowed from US industry.

Management, Competition (Economics), Economic aspects, Japan, Exports, Corporations, Corporations, Japanese

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A sociological view on why firms differ

Article Abstract:

The sources of firm heterogeneity are examined from a sociological perspective. The question of why firms differ is distinct from the question of why sucessful firms differ because the latter examines heterogeneity at equilibrium. Situational or dispositional characteristics of the entrepreneurial leadership of a firm are individual sources of firm differences. On the other hand, a firm's ability to beget new firms or spin-offs and to plan on consciously differentiating itself from others are organizational sources of differences. Finally, environmental sources of heterogeneity include the technological, political and ethnic conditions under which firms operate. Theories such as contingency, resource dependency, transactions costs and organizational ecology are analyzed in order to shed light on the persistence of heterogeneity even at equilibrium.

Social aspects, Business enterprises, Organizational research

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