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Abstract
This study provides an examination of two Japanese sporting goods corporations, Asics and Mizuno, to uncover the ways in which the traditional forms of Japanese management have been modified to fit within a post-industrial, global context. Our findings reveal a strong link between the cultural context of the firms and their managerial approach. However, the impact of traditional Japanese values is tempered by the existence of both firms in a global industry that have led to western values and practices becoming increasingly influential. This hybrid approach is contrasted with the explicitly marketing-oriented stance of western firms in the industry, most notably exemplified by industry leader Nike.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Ronald Mower, Mizuki Takahashi, and Sayaka Tokunaga for their invaluable help and comments on earlier drafts of this essay.
Notes
1 See CitationBell, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society.
2 E.g. CitationCastells, The Rise of the Network Society; CitationMaguire, Global Sport; CitationSampler, ‘Redefining Industry Structure’; CitationSilk and Andrews, ‘Beyond a Boundary?’.
3 E.g. CitationAbegglen and Stalk, Kaisha, The Japanese Corporation; CitationDore, Taking Japan Seriously; CitationFruin, The Japanese Enterprise System; CitationOuchi, Theory Z; CitationPascale and Athos, The Art of Japanese Management; CitationVogel, Japan as Number One.
4 CitationDonnelly, ‘The Local and the Global’.
5 E.g. CitationAbo, Hybrid Factory; CitationLiker, The Toyota Way; CitationOaklander, The Canon Case; CitationWomack, Jones and Roos, The Machine.
6 E.g. CitationAbegglen, 21st-Century Japanese Management; CitationVogel, Japan Remodeled.
7 E.g. CitationAmis, ‘Beyond Sport’; CitationGoldman and Papson, Nike Culture; CitationGrainger and Jackson, ‘Sports Marketing’; CitationJackson, Batty and Scherer, ‘Transnational Sport Marketing’.
8 CitationSchaede, ‘What Happened to the Japanese Model?’, 277.
9 Textual extracts are crucial because: ‘As well as providing evidence for particular claims, quotations provide color, add interest and enhance the legitimacy and credibility of the account’ (CitationAmis, ‘Interviewing’, 131). In this sense, the data for this study were predominantly qualitative and gathered from various sources. These included books (e.g. Onitsuka, Citation1987, 1991, 2000, 2001; Matsui, Citation2004), corporate publications (e.g. Adidas: Annual Report 2006, Social and Environmental Report 2005; Asics: Annual Report 2003–2007, CSR Report 2006–2007, Yūka Shōken Hōkokusho (Securities Report) 2003–2007; Fair Labor Association, Citation 2006 Annual Public Report; Mizuno: Kessan Tanshin, Renketsu (Consolidated Financial Settlement) 2000–2004, CSR Report 2006–2007, Fact Book 2007, Yūka Shōken Hōkokusho 2003–2007; Nike: FY04 Corporate Responsibility Report, FY05-06 Corporate Responsibility Report, Annual Report 2003–2007, Proxy Statement 2006; CitationOxfam International, Offside!, websites (e.g. www.adidas-group.com, www.ambc.co.jp, www.asics.co.jp, www.asicsamerica.com, www.cleanclothes.org, www.mizuno.co.jp, www.mizunousa.com, www.nike.com, www.reebok.com), articles in trade and business journals (e.g. Adweek, Aera, Atlanta Business Chronicle, Footwear News, Fortune, Industry Week, Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, Business Week, Mainichi Economist, Nikkei Business, Nikkei Information Strategy, Nikkei Marketing Journal, Time, Women's Wear Daily), and Japanese newspapers (e.g. Asahi Shimbun, Kobe Shimbun, Mainichi Shimbun, Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Nikkei, Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, Sankei Shimbun). Japanese sources were translated by the first author with the interpretations subsequently reviewed by two other native Japanese speakers who are fluent in English. Conclusions emerged, were challenged, and subsequently settled upon following numerous meetings among the authors.
10 For the global–local, homogenization–heterogenization, and universality–particularity debates, see, for example, CitationAndrews et al., ‘Jordanscapes’; CitationAppadurai, ‘Disjuncture and Difference’; CitationRobertson, Globalization, Citation‘Glocalization’.
11 Dore, Taking Japan Seriously; CitationNakane, Japanese Society; Ouchi, Theory Z; CitationTolich, Kenny, and Biggart, ‘Managing the Managers’.
12 Ouchi, Theory Z.
13 Tolich, Kenny, and Biggart, ‘Managing the Managers’, 592.
14 CitationGregersen and Black, ‘Multiple Commitments upon Repatriation’, 212.
15 CitationAoki, Information, Incentives, and Bargaining.
16 Nakane, Japanese Society.
17 CitationBhappu, ‘The Japanese Family’; Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System; CitationMurakami, ‘Ie Society’; Nakane, Japanese Society.
18 Murakami, ‘Ie Society’.
19 Bhappu, ‘The Japanese Family’, 410.
20 Bhappu, ‘The Japanese Family’, 410
21 Bhappu, ‘The Japanese Family’; CitationHofstede, ‘Management Scientists Are Human’.
22 Murakami, ‘Ie Society’.
23 There are arguments over defining which practices are more ‘Japanese’ and important than others (see, for example: CitationClegg and Kono, ‘Trends in Japanese Management’; CitationHayashi, ‘A Historical Review’; CitationIto, ‘Japan and the Asian Economies’; CitationMcCormick, ‘Whatever Happened’). We have focused on those practices that are most entrenched and have the broadest impact within Japanese industry.
24 Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System; CitationLincoln and Kalleberg, Culture, Control, and Commitment; CitationPil and MacDuffie, ‘Transferring Competitive Advantage’; CitationYuzawa, ‘Japanese Business Strategies’.
25 Clegg and Kono, ‘Trends in Japanese Management’, 276.
26 E.g. CitationLincoln and Nakata, ‘The Transformation’.
27 E.g. Aoki, Information, Incentives, and Bargaining.
28 E.g. Ito, ‘Japan and the Asian Economies’; CitationMonden, Toyota Production System.
29 E.g. CitationKawamura, ‘Characteristics’; CitationLiker, Fruin, and Adler, ‘Bringing Japanese Management Systems’.
30 E.g. Ouchi, Theory Z.
31 E.g. CitationHatvany and Puick, ‘Japanese Management Practices’.
32 Aoki, Information, Incentives, and Bargaining.
33 CitationNishiguchi, Strategic Industrial Sourcing.
34 Fruin, The Japanese Enterprise System.
35 Nishiguchi, Strategic Industrial Sourcing.
36 CitationKenny, ‘Transplantation?’; Pil and MacDuffie, ‘Transferring Competitive Advantage’.
37 E.g. Liker, The Toyota Way; Womack, Jones and Roos, The Machine.
38 Clegg and Kono, ‘Trends in Japanese Management’.
39 CitationGerlach and Lincoln, ‘The Organization of Business Networks’, 493.
40 CitationBanjeri and Sambhaya, ‘Vertical Keiretsu’; CitationJohnston and McAlevey, ‘Stable Shareholdings’; CitationMcGuire and Dow, ‘The Persistence and Implications’.
41 Ito, ‘Japan and the Asian Economies’.
42 Aoki, Information, Incentives, and Bargaining.
43 CitationDyer and Ouchi, ‘Japanese-Style Partnerships’.
44 E.g. Abo, Hybrid Factory; CitationAdler, ‘Hybridization’; CitationBeechler, ‘International Management Control’; Liker, Fruin, and Adler, ‘Bringing Japanese Management Systems’; CitationOliver and Wilkinson, The Japanization of British Industry.
45 CitationMcKenna, ‘Marketing Is Everything’.
46 It is worthwhile to note that Nike underwent the start-up period under tremendous Japanese influences, in particular Asics management. It is evident since Nike started as Blue Ribbon Sports by importing athletic footwear from Onitsuka in 1964 and Philip Knight initially learned the athletic footwear business from Kihachiro Onitsuka (CitationOnitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku). In this sense, although today's Nike well represents the western style of management, it can be argued that the construction process of Nike management was driven less by western traditional business models than by hybridization of western and Japanese ideas.
47 Abegglen, 21st-Century Japanese Management, 89.
48 Asics CSR Report 2006, 22, emphasis added.
49 CitationOnitsuka, Shigokoro, 243.
50 Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 12 April 1989, 1.
51 Lincoln and Nakata, ‘The Transformation’, 47.
52 Asics CSR Report 2006, 4.
53 CitationOnitsuka, Watashi.
54 Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, 23 January 2003, 8.
55 Nikkei Information Strategy, 24 December 2005.
56 Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 3 May 1996, 10.
57 Mizuno CSR Report 2006, 9.
58 Yomiuri Shimbun (Osaka), 10 May 1998.
59 Lincoln and Nakata, ‘The Transformation’, 48.
60 Lincoln and Nakata, ‘The Transformation’, 48, 47.
61 Onitsuka, Shigokoro, 249–50.
62 CitationWilligan, ‘High-Performance Marketing’, 92.
63 CitationKlein, No Logo.
64 CitationGoldman and Papson, Sign Wars. Asics and Mizuno were more concerned about competitions over domestic market shares and thus sought to secure contracts with renowned Japanese athletes such as Ichiro Suzuki, Kosuke Kitajima and Naoko Takahashi. Even so, Asics and Mizuno have been left behind western counterparts in the development of their brands through, in particular, celebrity endorsements.
65 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 109.
66 See also Maguire, Global Sport.
67 CitationJackson and Andrews, ‘Between and Beyond the Global’.
68 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 140.
69 Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, 22 August 2006, 1.
70 Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, 17 May 1994, 18.
71 Nikkei Marketing Journal, 21 October 1999, 12.
72 Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, 10 February 2005, 1.
73 CitationFrenkel, ‘Globalization’; CitationHarrison, ‘The Dark Side’; CitationKorzeniewicz, ‘Commodity Chains’.
74 Korzeniewicz, ‘Commodity Chains’.
75 Kawamura, ‘Characteristics’.
76 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 124–5.
77 Onitsuka, Shigokoro.
78 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 125.
79 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 125, 125–6.
80 CitationStrasser and Becklund, Swoosh.
81 Harrison, ‘The Dark Side’, 492.
82 Asics Yūka Shōken Hōkokusho 2007.
83 Mizuno Yūka Shōken Hōkokusho 2007.
84 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 140. Asics and Mizuno also have utilized foreign subcontractors, for instance, the Taiwanese-owned Pou Chen Group, the world's largest athletic footwear manufacturer (Clean Clothes Campaign: http://www.cleanclothes.org/companies/asics.htm#top).
85 Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, 23 January 2003, 8.
86 Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, 21 January 2004, 6.
87 Quoted in Klein, No Logo, 197.
88 Nihon Sen-I Shimbun, 16 May 2006, 4. The notion of monozukuri is important for understanding the Japanese way of manufacturing and the ‘manufacturer's mindset’. Monozukuri cannot be simply translated into manufacturing in the western sense but rather reflects traditional Japanese craftsmanship values, spirit, and a traditional desire to make high-quality goods.
89 CitationCarroll, ‘The Pyramid’, 43.
90 Knight, ‘Global Manufacturing’, 637.
91 CitationZadek, ‘The Path to Corporate Responsibility’.
92 These data were collected from: Nike F Citation Y04 Corporate Responsibility Report; Adidas Group Social and Environmental Report, Citation 2005 ; Asics Annual Report 2005; Asics CSR Report Citation 2006 , 2007; Mizuno CSR Report Citation 2006 , 2007.
93 Fair Labor Association, Citation2006 Annual Public Report.
94 Oxfam International, Offside!
95 Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, 16 November 1998, 19.
96 Nikkei Marketing Journal, 9 July 1998, 28.
97 CitationStewart and Raman, ‘Lessons from Toyota's Long Drive’.
98 Nikkei Business, 22 June 1998, 92–4.
99 Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, 20 July 1991, 12.
100 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku, 73.
101 For the Matsushita philosophy and spiritual values, see Pascale and Athos, The Art of Japanese Management.
102 Onitsuka, Shigokoro, 97.
103 CitationOnitsuka, Ashikkusu.
104 Onitsuka, Nenji, inori, tsuranuku.
105 Asics Annual Report, Citation2006, 4.
106 Asahi Shimbun, 6 March 1988, 13.
107 Kobe Shimbun, 29 March 2008.
108 Nihon Keizai Shimbun, 1 May 2000, 12.
109 Asics Yūka Shōken Hōkokusho 2007.
110 Mizuno Yūka Shōken Hōkokusho 2007.
111 See CitationHolt, Quelch, and Taylor, ‘How Global Brands Compete’; CitationQuelch, ‘The Return’.
