Do Japanese companies have a competitive strategy?

Abstract

Responding to Michael Porter’s claim that “Japanese companies rarely have a strategy”, this paper argues that the competitive advantage of Japanese enterprises is not to be found in traditional practices. Rather, it is due to the way these practices are upgraded and reinforced by ideological factors such as the “community of fate”, as well as the formation of governance structures that cultivate the development of contextual knowledge that leads to the efficient and effective production of complex products.