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Over the decade the trend of Global Fortune 500 firms has shown significant changes – Japanese and Chinese firms in particular. The purpose of this paper is to present trend analysis of Global Fortune 500 – Japanese and Chinese firms. Key research questions are: what are the relevant macro-level changes that have affected the growth and decline of Japanese and Chinese firms? What are the industry-level changes that have occurred in Japanese and Chinese firms in terms of firm characteristics and financial performances? What are the lessons and implications from the firms added to or removed from Global Fortune 500? Data analysis is conducted based on Fortune database from 1995 to 2013.

The study employs descriptive analysis to examine the trend of Japanese and Chinese firms listed in Global Fortune 500 including: based on revenue and profit figures from 1995 to 2013; the authors perform trend analysis for each of those five types from 1995 to 2013; the authors replicate the analyses for different industry types in terms of the above five types; the authors compare the performances of Japanese and Chinese firms; based on 2011-2013 data, the authors conduct more in-depth analysis for selected firms.

The findings suggest five distinct types of firms including “Sustainables,” “New Comers,” “Move Ups,” “Decliners,” and “Drop Outs”; it is interesting to note that the changes in Global Fortune 500 firms suggest how these two countries show their relative competitive advantage. Chinese firms show steady flows of new firms that join in the rank of Global Fortune 500 whereas Japanese firms suggest continuous drop of firms that move out of Global Fortune 500 firms. As China increases its size of economy, state-owned financial institutions, resource-focus firms (e.g. mining and petroleum) firms also rapidly increased its overall size. Although the number is still small, privately owned Chinese global firms (e.g. Lenovo, Huawei, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, Ping An Insurance) also are now listed as Global Fortune 500 firms. In contrast, Japanese firms that lost their global market positions steadily disappeared from Global Fortune 500 firms. Representative firms include Daiei, Mitsubishi Motor Company, and NEC.

One limitation of the analysis on financial indicators is that the authors select only a few firms and focus only on two time points. Nevertheless, it provides the authors information about the financial factors that characterize the two types of Global Fortune 500 firms. Moreover, it opens up new opportunities for future research.

Factors that influence the behaviors of Global Fortune 500 firms suggest both external environmental and internal managerial factors. Although serious external factors (e.g. Global Financial Crisis) affect the outcomes of these competitive positioning, it is still the managerial leadership that makes differences in cases of many Japanese firms. To Japanese firms maintaining domestic advantage is not enough to sustain their position in Global Fortune 500. Global competitiveness matters. On the other hand, it is unclear whether changes occurring in Chinese firms are more managerial than externally dictated. In case of many Chinese financial firms and resource rich firms, the huge domestic advantage has much to do with their position in Global Fortune 500.

This is the first trend analysis that examines the Global Fortune 500 firms from Japan and China. The authors identify five types of firms that would be an important basis for the further benchmarking studies of Global Fortune 500 firms in other counties (e.g. the USA, Germany, Korea, and other Emerging Economies – Russia, India, Brazil).

The purpose of this paper is to examine how clarity of corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation of Japanese small and medium enterprises (SMEs) achieves constructive firm performance outcomes.

On the basis of the literature review, the authors present a research model that defines key constructs and provide propositions that explain the interrelationships with theoretical rationale and practical implications. Using careful selection criteria, the authors have further conducted the in-depth interviews of the executives of two prominent Japanese SMEs.

The results suggest that CEOs with strong CSR orientation are more likely to influence their firms to achieve effective firm performance. If CSR philosophy is strategically formulated, clearly communicated, and widely accepted, then such firm is more likely to attain desirable business performance outcomes for larger stakeholders. Furthermore, CSR implementation of SMEs is not necessarily too costly; in fact, the long-term rate of return on SMEs’ CSR investment, with proper priority and prudent focus, is quite competitive.

In spite of the specificity of the two case studies, the research model and the study findings give valuable insight on the role of CEO’s philosophy on CSR implementation in the international market. The linkage mechanism between business operation and CSR by these SMEs is applicable to many innovative entrepreneurial firms that target beyond domestic markets.

The authors highlight how the clarity of CSR philosophy in terms of firm orientation and linkage mechanism aids SMEs in overcoming their resource constraints. Furthermore, well-implemented CSR activities may become instrumental in achieving long-term desirable performance in the form of customer loyalty, employee’s sense of pride, and corporate socio-economic reputation.

Technologies change quickly in the automotive industry. This can provide opportunities to firms from emerging economies who try to enter the world stage of automotive production, provided they can react to this more nimbly than established competitors. How technological change affects the supply chain coordination of incumbents from developed economies and new entrants from emerging economies should strongly determine the speed of competitive reaction. By using the example of automotive transmission development, the purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual model for the analysis and offer research propositions.

The authors build a conceptual model based on information processing theory and offer research propositions based on case study evidence of four automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and five suppliers.

The authors find symptoms of two larger trends: increasing specialization and technological linkages and a need to increase external supply chain integration beyond traditional structures. Comparing the effects on Japanese and German incumbents, the authors find that increasing external supply chain linkages proves to be harder for Japanese OEMs. Tight links and routines in the Japanese supply chain networks may harm OEM efficiency under the new technological conditions, e.g. the lack of complete part specifications and high demands for customization. Looking at effects on emerging market firms, Chinese OEMs use quasi-open modular production settings in transmission development and lean strongly on inputs from specialized foreign tier-one suppliers. Speed advantages must be weighed against long-term disadvantages of dependence and insufficient R&D investments.

The study explores how technological change affects inter-firm development processes. The authors propose a framework and hypotheses based on information processing theory and link the findings to the discussion on the impact of national institutional context on supply chain coordination.

OEMs wanting to adapt complex existing internal structures to the changing demands for information processing should focus first on improving internal capacities by improving the amount and richness of information flow. Implementing new standards for simultaneous and standardized software development across the supply chain is a key point for this. A second step should be to boost the internal capacity to process higher richness of information, i.e. to understand the meta-knowledge necessary to integrate across technological areas in the development of electronic control units (ECUs).

The authors draw on original interview data in developed and emerging markets and information processing theory to explore the complexity of inter-firm coordination in automotive supply chains.

The present study aims to explore the relationship between manufacturing–research and development (R&D) integration and organizational culture in enhancing quality and product development performance (PDP).

Based on data collected from 931 manufacturing firms around world, the authors examine the proposed hypothesis by using regression analyses. In addition, PROCESS (SPSS macro) is used to test both the mediation and moderated mediation models in this study.

The findings reveal that quality management practices (QMPs) partially mediate the relationship between R&D-manufacturing integration and PDP. Further, it is found that the direct and indirect effects of R&D-manufacturing integration on PDP are stronger when the organization is characterized as participative rather than hierarchical.

This study, by investigating the combined effect of R&D-manufacturing integration and organizational culture on QMPs and PDP, provides practical insights into the ways that manufacturing firms effectively utilize the integration between R&D and manufacturing functions to improve QMPs and enhance PDP.

The purpose of this study is to empirically explore the effects and interaction effect of human resources and digital manufacturing technologies (DMTs) on supply chain integration (SCI) and how their roles are influenced by competition.

Drawing on the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework, this study builds and tests a holistic model based on the International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) project database.

The results show that human resources and DMTs have significant positive effects on three dimensions of SCI. Competition positively moderates the effects of human resources on customer integrations, negatively moderates the effects of human resource on internal integration, but does not moderate the effects of human resources on supplier integration. Besides, the moderating effect of competition has not been found in the relationships between DMTs and three SCI dimensions.

By investigating the effects of human resources and DMTs on SCI practices in the context of competition, this study contributes to the literature on SCI, DMTs and the TOE framework as well as offers practical insights that help manufacturing firms to promote SCI more effectively and efficiently.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of supply chain integration (SCI) in improving sustainability management practices (SMPs) and performance.

Based on data collected from 931 manufacturing firms in multiple countries and regions, the authors conducted a structural equation modeling analysis to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings suggest that supplier and customer integration are vital enablers for both intra- and inter-organizational SMPs. The results also reveal that both intra- and inter-organizational SMPs are significantly and positively associated with sustainability performance (i.e. economic, environmental and social performance) and function as complements to jointly enhance environmental and social performance.

This study incorporates SCI into the sustainability literature, providing a new perspective on sustainability and supply chain management research.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how to align purchasing portfolio management with sourcing negotiation styles.

The authors have adopted two-step field tests: a case study; and a follow-up experimental test with 77 sourcing professionals.

The authors note that Kraljic Portfolio Matrix (KPM) provides a valuable guide for determining sourcing negotiation styles (i.e. competitive negotiation for leverage items, collaborative negotiation for strategic items and accommodative negotiation for bottleneck items). Interestingly, effective buyers adopt right negotiation styles based on the switching costs of changing suppliers, the dependence level on specific suppliers and the availability of alternative suppliers.

This study shows that aligning purchasing portfolio management with sourcing negotiation styles improves the chances of effective buying outcomes. Practical implications suggest that successful buyers move beyond interpreting generic predictions of the KPM framework and rather implement specific negotiation styles to maximize the potential benefits of purchasing portfolio management.

This study aims to investigate sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) through the lens of socio-technical system (STS) theory. Specifically, it examines the individual and synergistic effects of social and technical integration on two main sustainability practices (i.e. sustainable production and sustainable sourcing). Supply chain uncertainty is further explored as a key environmental factor.

A moderated joint effects model was hypothesized. A sample of 759 manufacturing firms was used to test the proposed hypotheses by hierarchical linear regression.

The results show that both social and technical integration have positive effects on sustainable production and sustainable sourcing. Interestingly, social and technical integration have an enhancing synergistic effect on sustainable sourcing, which is further strengthened in high-uncertainty supply chains.

This study extends the application of STS theory in the SSCM setting. It enriches the sustainability literature by uncovering the impact of the interplay among the firm's social, technical and environmental systems on sustainable production and sourcing, and offers system-wide insights for sustainability management.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the contingencies of supply chain risk management (SCRM) in manufacturing multinational corporations (MNCs) by exploring the moderating role of international asset dispersion in the performance effect of SCRM, as well as the counteraction effect of supply chain integration (SCI).

Multi-country survey data from a sample of 378 responses collected by the sixth round International Manufacturing Strategy Survey were analyzed. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results demonstrate that SCRM improves the operational effectiveness of manufacturing MNCs but this performance effect is attenuated by international asset dispersion. Nevertheless, external integration can counteract the negative effect of international asset dispersion and ensure the efficacy of SCRM practices.

The results of this study provide suggestions for supply chain managers of manufacturing MNCs to better conduct SCRM practices under the condition of dispersed international assets. Besides, supply chain managers can leverage external integration to ensure the efficacy of SCRM practices.

Although there are plenty of studies on the relationship between SCRM and operational performance, prior findings are inconsistent. This study sheds light on the SCRM-operational performance relationship by considering how a manufacturing MNC’s international asset dispersion can influence the efficacy of SCRM practices and how SCI can attenuate the negative effect of international asset dispersion.