Intra-Regional Management: The Western Europe Strategy of Japanese Firms

Abstract

This paper raises the following questions: 1) How have Japanese firms that have entered Western Europe via direct investment understood the region's business environment? 2) With that understanding, what strategies have Japanese firms built and what projects have they developed? 3) Conversely, how have the projects developed by Japanese firms affected the business environment in Western Europe? To explore the questions outlined above, it is desirable or even necessary to observe a relatively large number of cases over as long a period as possible. This paper clearly faces limits on this score. On the other hand, by observing a small number of cases in relative detail, this paper may have the advantage of providing a basis for formulating general propositions.