Analyzing supply chain robustness for OEMs from a life cycle perspective using life cycle simulation

Long-term relationships between original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and stakeholders in their supply chain and end-of-life process can be designed, while considering uncertainty in future environmental legislation changes. This study proposes a method to analyze the capability of OEMs to reconfigure their supply chain and end-of-life operations to achieve performance targets, which are defined in terms of environmental impacts and life cycle costs. Using life cycle simulation (LCS), the physical deterioration and the functional obsolescence of individual products are considered as stochastic elements in the analysis. The analyzed reconfiguration capability provides the OEM with robustness against uncertainty from a life cycle perspective.     

Do firms benefit from multiple banking relationships? Evidence from small and medium- sized firms in Japan

This paper examines empirically the effects of multiple banking relationships on the cost and availability of credit. The analysis is based on an unbalanced panel data set for Japanese small and medium-sized firms over the period 2000–2002. The Hausman-Taylor estimator is used to allow for possible correlation between unobservable heterogeneity among firms and multiple banking relationships. The results suggest that the cost of credit is positively correlated with the number of banking relationships when the endogeneity of banking relationships is taken into account. Multiple banking relationships have a positive effect on the availability of credit for financially constrained firms.     

Complementarity,fiscal decentralization and economic growth

Theories of the voluntary provision of public goods and development economics have clarified that complementarity in the production process is a crucial ingredient to understanding how alternative economic environments affect economic performance. This paper examines how the structures of intra- and inter-regional complementarity affect the relationship between economic growth and fiscal decentralization. We provide a theory that describes how fiscal decentralization affects economic growth under various structures of regional complementarity. Our empirical analysis, based on a panel data set of the fifty states of the United States over the period of 1992–1997, supports our theoretical specification of the production function. Also, we observe a hump-shaped relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth that is consistent with our theoretical result. Our analysis also shows that the optimal degree of fiscal decentralization conducive to economic growth is higher than the average of the data in some cases, and hence further decentralization is recommended for economic growth. The previous version of the paper was presented at the 59th Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance (University of Economics in Prague, Prague), the 2003 Fall Meeting of the Japanese Economic Association (Meiji University, Tokyo), the 60th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Institute of Public Finance (Kansai University, Osaka), and in seminars at Yokohama National University and the University of California, Irvine. The authors acknowledge the comments and discussions by people including Timothy Goodspeed, Kiyoshi Mitsui, Motohiro Sato, Etsuro Shioji, Tsunao Okumura, and Craig Parsons. We are also grateful for the comments by the Editor (Amihai Glazer) and two anonymous referees. The usual disclaimer applies. Nishimura acknowledges the financial support from JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research Abroad.     

Determinants of demand for technology in relationships with complementary assets among Japanese firms

ABSTRACT

There has been growing interest in open innovation by firms creating new value by combining internal and external ideas. Technology insourcing, however, has not been satisfactorily investigated compared to technology outsourcing in empirical literature. In this paper, we examine the determinants of external technology sourcing by types of the counterpart in new product development (NPD). We use a novel dataset at the product level, conducted by RIETI in 2011. We highlight cases in which a technology partner is also a business partner, such as a supplier or customer, from those where this is not the case. In contrast, in cases when a technology partner is not a business partner, patents play an important role in moderating transaction costs in partnerships. In contrast, in cases when a technology partner is also a business partner, we found a pattern of co-specialization of managerial resources with the partner firm.

Abbreviations: B2B: Business to business; NPD: New product development; RBV: Resource-based view     

Japanese Banks’ monitoring activities and the performance of borrower firms: 1981–1996

We construct an index measure that quantitatively describes the monitoring activities of Japanese banks. Using micro data on Japanese banks and borrower firms, we examine the effects of bank monitoring on the profitability of borrower firms. We find significant positive effects in the periods 1986–1991 and 1992–1996, although there is no significant effect in the period 1981–1985. We also examine how banks’ monitoring affects borrowers. The results show that the positive effects of banks’ monitoring on borrowers’ profitability are mostly caused by screening effects, not performance-improving effects.

Two-stage optimal control problems and optimality conditions

When an optimal investment decision is studied for a firm whose capital goods are subject to a delivery lag, a control problem with a time-delay argument in the objective function emerges. Such a problem under a set of simple assumptions is shown to be reducible to a two-stage optimal control problem. The significance of this is that familiar tools from standard optimal control theory are applicable to the resulting two-stage problem. Necessary conditions are presented for a general two-stage problem with an adjustable switching time. Some specific results are also obtained for several special cases.     

Corporate governance and research and development: Evidence from Japan

This paper investigates the effects of the ownership structure on the R&D intensity. Using the Japanese machine-manufacturing firm data from 1987 till 1998, we first found that the effects of R&D on stock market valuation and TFP growth were significantly positive in the latter half of the 1990s. Next, analyzing the determinants of the R&D intensity in 1998, we found that the shareholding ratios of large shareholders and the leverage ratios were positively correlated with R&D intensity, while the proportion of bank loans to total debt was negatively correlated with it. These results are consistent with the hypotheses that stress the disciplinary roles of large shareholders and debt. It is also consistent with a bank's holdup hypothesis. Finally, comparing the results of 1998 with those of 1989, we found that the positive roles of keiretsu affiliation and cross-shareholdings disappeared during the last decade.