三菱企業集團의 成長과 課題

Abstract

Looking back the history of Mitsubishi in the Meiji era, its history of 75 years can be seen as a single paragraph. Seventy-five years later, the "zaibatsu," or coglomerate, was disbanded, and the next 75 years saw a high economic growth in the Showa era and the collapse of the bubble economy in the Heisei era. The following years are now marked by globalization and rapid digitalization, the time-honored corporate history has accumulated a mountain of management know-how. Professor Iriyama Akiyue cited Mizubishi's strength for the theory of transaction costs, saying that it is inefficient to develop only a single business in an emerging economy. In order to deal with what they can't do or what they can do, they need to cooperate with other companies, which leads to market transactions. In order for market transactions to work efficiently, infrastructure such as administration and law must be well-established. For example, if a dispute occurs with a local partner in an emerging country that lacks infrastructure, time is needed before a legal procedure, which is likely to the benefit of those who use bribes. After all, transaction costs are high. To streamline transaction costs, if companies A and B belong the same corporation, intra-company transactions are possible at a lower cost. Therefore, Mitsubishi can also reduce transaction costs when mutual cooperation is possible due to its flexible relationship with subsidiaries. In this regard, Mitsubishi has strengths, but it also poses a new challenge in the new digital era due to waning competitiveness of core businesses, time-consuming decision-making processes, and high investment barriers in Japan.