Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) have often been portrayed as highly centralised firms that limit the roles of overseas subsidiaries to the assembly and sale of standardised products designed and developed in Japan (see, e.g. Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1989: 51-2, 158-161). Their foreign...

Different ways of competing in markets came to dominate particular sectors, regions and national market economies in the postwar period as a result of variations in market conditions, technological regimes and institutional contexts. These varied in terms of production volumes, basis of...