Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry

The vertical keiretsu in the Japanese automotive industry, once heralded as a source of competitive advantage, has been losing its foothold since the late 1990s. Yet there remains some argument that some of keiretsu suppliers continue to serve as competitive and indispensable partners for som...

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Main Authors: Akira TAKEISHI, Tatsuya KIKUTANI, Ryuichi NAKAMOTO
Format: Article
Language:Japanese
Published: The Academic Association for Organizational Science 2022-09-01
Series:AAOS Transactions
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aaostrans/11/1/11_105/_pdf/-char/ja
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author Akira TAKEISHI
Tatsuya KIKUTANI
Ryuichi NAKAMOTO
author_facet Akira TAKEISHI
Tatsuya KIKUTANI
Ryuichi NAKAMOTO
author_sort Akira TAKEISHI
collection DOAJ
description The vertical keiretsu in the Japanese automotive industry, once heralded as a source of competitive advantage, has been losing its foothold since the late 1990s. Yet there remains some argument that some of keiretsu suppliers continue to serve as competitive and indispensable partners for some OEMs. This paper empirically examines the roles of keiretsu suppliers and their changes in the Japanese automotive industry, drawing on a panel data set on 8 components, 12 OEMs and 1,256 transactional dyad units over 32 years. We conduct statistical analysis to examine how keiretsu relations, along with supplier’s competitiveness and prior transactions, affected OEM’s decisions on procurement allocation among suppliers. It reveals that while most OEMs have no longer procured more from keiretsu suppliers since the early 2000s, Toyota continues to procure more after controlling for supplier’s competitiveness and prior transactions. Based on the results, the paper discusses the process in which keiretsu suppliers could survive and gain more procurement from OEMs.
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institution OA Journals
issn 2758-2795
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publishDate 2022-09-01
publisher The Academic Association for Organizational Science
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spelling doaj-art-cc56907abdd3468488452406bcef0d912025-08-20T02:37:03ZjpnThe Academic Association for Organizational ScienceAAOS Transactions2758-27952022-09-01111105110https://doi.org/10.11207/aaostrans.11.1_105Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive IndustryAkira TAKEISHI0Tatsuya KIKUTANI1Ryuichi NAKAMOTO2Gakushuin UniversityKyoto UniversityKyushu University The vertical keiretsu in the Japanese automotive industry, once heralded as a source of competitive advantage, has been losing its foothold since the late 1990s. Yet there remains some argument that some of keiretsu suppliers continue to serve as competitive and indispensable partners for some OEMs. This paper empirically examines the roles of keiretsu suppliers and their changes in the Japanese automotive industry, drawing on a panel data set on 8 components, 12 OEMs and 1,256 transactional dyad units over 32 years. We conduct statistical analysis to examine how keiretsu relations, along with supplier’s competitiveness and prior transactions, affected OEM’s decisions on procurement allocation among suppliers. It reveals that while most OEMs have no longer procured more from keiretsu suppliers since the early 2000s, Toyota continues to procure more after controlling for supplier’s competitiveness and prior transactions. Based on the results, the paper discusses the process in which keiretsu suppliers could survive and gain more procurement from OEMs.https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aaostrans/11/1/11_105/_pdf/-char/jakeiretsuinter-firm relationcompetitive advantageautomotive industry
spellingShingle Akira TAKEISHI
Tatsuya KIKUTANI
Ryuichi NAKAMOTO
Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry
AAOS Transactions
keiretsu
inter-firm relation
competitive advantage
automotive industry
title Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry
title_full Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry
title_fullStr Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry
title_full_unstemmed Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry
title_short Changing Roles of Vertical Keiretsu: A Long-term Panel Data Analysis of Component Transactions in the Japanese Automotive Industry
title_sort changing roles of vertical keiretsu a long term panel data analysis of component transactions in the japanese automotive industry
topic keiretsu
inter-firm relation
competitive advantage
automotive industry
url https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/aaostrans/11/1/11_105/_pdf/-char/ja
work_keys_str_mv AT akiratakeishi changingrolesofverticalkeiretsualongtermpaneldataanalysisofcomponenttransactionsinthejapaneseautomotiveindustry
AT tatsuyakikutani changingrolesofverticalkeiretsualongtermpaneldataanalysisofcomponenttransactionsinthejapaneseautomotiveindustry
AT ryuichinakamoto changingrolesofverticalkeiretsualongtermpaneldataanalysisofcomponenttransactionsinthejapaneseautomotiveindustry