The Japanese enterprise system

"This volume merges four streams of inquiry and interpretation in a study of the evolution and emergence of Japan's leading industrial firms during the twentieth century. First, it provides a historical study of how the industrial institutions of modern Japan appeared and matured. Second, it looks at the basic forms of social and economic interaction in Japan. Third, it is a development study of how circumstances of rapid technical and economic change have shaped the Japanese business system. Finally, it is also a strategy study of how Japanese managers have responded to and shaped these circumstances." "This fourfold synthesis offers a model of institutional development under conditions of late economic development and private initiative that falls somewhere between a capitalist development state and a free market economy. Business policy rather than industrial policy is accentuated, revealing a set of robust institutions and a dynamic to activate and interrelate them." "This book will be of interest to industrial economists, economics and business historians, and students of economic development in Japan."--BOOK JACKET.