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Dear AIB members,

The Japan Academy of Multinational Enterprises is delighted to announce that Volume 7 (2021), Issue 1 of Japan MNE Insights is now available online (http://www.mne-jp.org/english/column.html).
This issue includes two special essays, and we would like to share the summary of the essays with you.

Synopsis:
Elizabeth L. Rose, “Research on Japanese Business: From the Outside, Looking in.”

While the specificity of the Japanese business environment is widely acknowledged, I argue that Japan represents a remarkable context in which to study a great many theoretically interesting and globally applicable phenomena related to the management of MNEs. Many of these issues have particular relevance for our understanding of emerging-market MNEs (EMNEs). For example, business group-embedded Japanese firms undertook rapid international expansion during the later 20th century, offering parallels to the more recent internationalization of EMNEs from China, India, and Latin America. More broadly, the Japanese context presents some fairly extreme configurations that come close to boundary conditions, which offers the potential for theoretical development (e.g, the internationalization of services, given the contrast between Japan’s highly-internationalized manufacturers and its largely-domestic service sector, and how Japanese MNEs deal with the need to remain profitable during a sustained economic slowdown at home). Of course, insightful research pertaining to how Japanese MNEs operate demands the deep understanding that comes with contextual embeddedness. International research on MNEs needs to have more input from Japan-based scholars.

Synopsis:  
Shingo Nishii, “Thoughts on Japanese Corporate Support Measures in the Context of Covid-19."

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the “Business Restructuring Subsidy” as one of the latest Japanese corporate support measures in the COVID-19 disaster and then to make observations about management support organizations and the professionalization of existing services in Japan. The Business Restructuring Subsidy has been introduced to respond to the economic and social changes of the COVID and post-COVID era and to promote the structural transformation of the Japanese economy. The subsidies are directly targeted at SMEs and medium-sized enterprises (MSEs) to help them restructure their businesses.
Simultaneously, the subsidies will contribute to raising and expanding the effectiveness of management support organizations, management consulting services, and other management-related professional services in Japan. This paper discusses the networking of management support organizations and the professional servitization of regional financial institutions as an example of innovation in existing management support organizations.


We hope that you will enjoy reading the compelling essays in our newsletter!

With kind regards,

Dr. Tamiko Kasahara
Editorial member of Japan MNE Insights.