Japan*s Network Economy: Structure, Persistence, And Change

This book uses quantitative and historical methods to trace the evolution of the Japanese economy's business network from the prewar period to the end of the century. It addresses whether the controversial "keiretsu" enterprise groupings have outlived their usefulness and are withering away in the face of deregulation, globalization, and market liberalization. While concluding that these relationships are still central to Japanese business, the book also notes that they are much more subordinated to the strategies of individual enterprises than was true of the prewar network economy.

James R. Lincoln holds the Mitsubishi Chair in International Business and Finance at the Walter A. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley. He is the author (with Arne Kalleberg) of Culture, Control, and Commitment: A Study of Work Organizations and Work Attitudes in the US and Japan (with Arne Kalleberg, Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Michael L. Gerlach is Professor of the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of Alliance Capitalism: The Social Organization of Japanese Business (1992).