Porter's business strategies in Japan

Abstract

PurposeThe Japanese government is promoting a move towards a variety of generic business strategies based on the Porter Prize as a way to regain global competitiveness and end their long economic recession. The purpose of this paper is to report on the current state of Japanese business strategies to a practitioner audience based on the authors' previous academic‐oriented research.Design/methodology/approachA survey of 101 Japanese respondents was conducted to determine their relative use of Porter's generic business strategies. Examples of implementation are presented to illustrate use of the critical strategies.FindingsThe Japanese are using two of Porter's generic strategies, namely cost leadership and differentiation and they are using two variations of Porter's focus strategies.Research limitations/implicationsAs is typical with all survey research, the convenience sample of organizations used in this survey may not be representative of all Japanese organizations.Practical implicationsManagers, consultants and policy makers will gain insights into the impact national policy can have on corporate strategy. This understanding is important when conducting business in a global environment. More specifically, readers will gain a better understanding of how Japanese firms are presently implementing competitive strategies as a result of a Japanese national strategy to promote the use of Porter's generic strategies.Originality/valueThis article is a practitioner‐oriented translation of an academic research study. The value of the current article is to share findings with the practitioner community and present examples of strategic implementation to managers, consultants and policy makers in a less technical format than a typical academic journal.

Entrepreneurial orientation and firm performance in Italian firms

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The Effects of the Strategy and Goal on Business Performance as Mediated by Management Accounting Systems

“…The concepts of the strategy should be tailored to this situation and vice versa. The second theme links Porter's business strategies to an organization in the form of the coordination of technological and control activities in running a company (Allen et al 2007). Neither tactics nor systems alone are sufficient for superior performance, and Porter is not mutually exclusive.…”

A modern history of Japanese management thought

“…The economic environment has become more global and newly industrialized countries have successfully captured market share from Japanese manufacturers around the world. Thus, Japan must now seriously address the need for paradigm change in its business culture and managerial practices (Black and Morrison, 2010; Allen et al , 2008). The same calls for deregulation that drove change in the US in the 1970s are now common in Japan as well (Imai, 2011).…”