Cost Structure Changes of Japanese Manufacturers amidst Global Competition

摘要

The great impact that globalized economic competition made on Japanese manufactures was amplified by an endogenous factor in Japan's domestic economy: the collapse of the bubble economy in the beginning of the 1990s. This paper analyzes how Japanese manufacturers have changed cost structures to cope with such intensifying global competition in an ailing Japanese economy. Employing the contingency theory framework, the study examines the proposition that, under global competitive pressure, the surviving firms changed patterns of cost behaviour to ensure profits.