"Organizational Design and Growth of Trading Company: Comparing Mitsui and Mitsubishi in Prewar Japan" (in Japanese)

Tetsuji Okazaki
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Tetsuji Okazaki: Graduate School of Economics, The University of Tokyo

No CIRJE-J-295, CIRJE J-Series from CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo

Abstract: This paper compares the organizational designs of two major trading companies in prewar Japan, Mitsui & Co. and Mitsubishi & Co., and investigates their implications on firm growth. These two companies adopted different organizational designs. While Mitsui’s organization was divided by region and decision making was decentralized, Mitsubishi’s organization was divided by commodity and decision making was centralized. As an implication of these different organizational designs, it is expected that Mitsui had advantage in those markets that were exposed to frequent local shocks, while Mitsubishi had advantage in those commodities that were exposed to global shocks across regions. We collected the data on the characteristics of export markets and export commodities, as well as export performance of Mitsui and Mitsubishi for those markets and commodities. The results of regression analyses are consistent with our expectation.

Pages: 22pages
Date: 2018-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-his
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tky:jseres:2018cj295

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