Knowledge Factors Preventing Japanese Home Builders from Multinationalization: A Case Study of Sekisui House, Ltd

Tomonaga Horiguchi (), Kaito Takahama and Norihisa Yoshimura
Additional contact information
Tomonaga Horiguchi: Kokushikan University
Kaito Takahama: Yonezawa Women’s Junior College
Norihisa Yoshimura: Kwansei Gakuin University

A chapter in Transformation of Japanese Multinational Enterprises and Business, 2024, pp 239-261 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The housing industry, with its strong technical characteristics and practices, uses explicit knowledge embedded in a specific local context, leading to stickiness even for know-how. This makes it difficult for firms to expand abroad without overcoming this strong stickiness. Success or failure in multinationalization depends on their absorptive capacity, which is supported by prior knowledge. It is difficult to create internalization advantages through vertical integration; therefore, selective vertical integration is necessary. Vertical integration at the global level is difficult; however, if established, it can provide strong competitive advantages. Nonetheless, the mechanism of creating competitive advantage hinders the multinationalization of firms. This case study examines the theoretical compatibility of the multinationalization of Sekisui House, a leading house manufacturer in Japan. We show that there is potential for advancing global procurement along with international expansion, but the unique standards of Japanese architecture pose a barrier to global procurement. For companies in this industry, it is reasonable to adopt a strategy that creates synergy between the overseas expansion of housing businesses and their own building materials. M&As focus on acquiring local knowledge and capabilities through talent acquisition. Finally, as the know-how of sales has high information viscosity, it is difficult to share it even within the same organization, and even more difficult for organizations across countries.

Keywords: Internalization; Firm specific advantage; SECI; Multinationalization; Japanese home builders (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-99-8616-3_8

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9789819986163

DOI: 10.1007/978-981-99-8616-3_8

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().