THE EFFECTS OF THE KEIRETSU ON THE EXPORT PERFORMANCE OF JAPANESE COMPANIES - HELP OR HINDRANCE

This study investigates the effect that membership in a financial keir etsu has on the export performance of Japanese manufacturing companies . Companies that belong to one of the six major financial keiretsu are found to have lower export ratios than similar companies who are not members. The negative effects of keiretsu membership appear confined t o producer goods companies where intergroup linkages such as preferent ial trading relationships are tightest. Additional evidence from the p roducer goods sector showing that keiretsu members do less well on oth er measures of company performance supports the argument that the cart el-like properties sometimes ascribed to the keiretsu actually reduce competitiveness, thus dampening export performance. In general, the da ta do not support recommendations that non-Japanese companies might lo ok to keiretsu-type alliances as an organizational strategy that will lend to competitive advantage in global markets. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.