Management geography explores the spatial characteristics of management-related issues, especially of firms. This book discusses management geography in Japan and other Asian countries from Asian perspectives. The field has made significant contributions to the global economy but has not been deeply investigated in English-language geographical literature to date. The book addresses the following critical questions:

• What kinds of challenges do multinational corporations in Japan and other Asian countries face?
• How are managerial actors in multinational enterprises (MNEs) embracing boundary-spanning activities in a global context?
• How do firms and related entities cultivate business pipelines and 'buzz' within and beyond local regions?
• How do actors in Japanese MNEs, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and related institutions embed various managerial processes at overseas locations? This book consists of two parts:Part I discusses the application and roles of Japanese and international managerial practices in the globalizing world. Part II examines changing business communities in the industrial and rural spaces of East Asia, focusing primarily on Japan and China. This work will interest readers in a wide range of fields, including geography, management studies, economics, urban planning and sociology. The book is also suitable for upper-level undergraduate students and graduate students in geography, management studies and related fields.

Explores management geography from Asian perspectives Addresses critical questions in management geography through theory-grounded empirical studies Is a valuable source for readers in a wide range of fields, including geography and management studies, among others

Autorentext

Atsushi Taira is a Professor of Human Geography at Kagawa University, Japan. He obtained his BA from Waseda University, and his MA and PhD from the University of Tsukuba. He also studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during his PhD program. His early research interests were in cultural and social geography. His work on the transformation of the urban community in downtown Tokyo was published in the Geographical Review of Japan. He then turned his interest towards economic geography. His main themes are the locational strategies of Japanese-affiliated firms in developed and developing countries, the transformation of local industrial clusters, and glocal strategies of small- and medium-sized firms located outside the major metropolitan areas. His articles have been published in books and in international academic journals such as Geographical Journal, Geographical Review of Japan and Annals of the Japan Association of Economic Geographers. He currently is a steering committee member of the Commission of Local and Regional Development of the International Geographical Union and a co-chair of the Association of Japanese Geographers research group of spaces of international economy and management with Rolf D. Schlunze and other young scholars.

Rolf D. Schlunze holds a professorship for intercultural management at Ritsumeikan University, Japan. To our knowledge, he was the first German geographer to receive his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo. His doctoral thesis was published in the book series of Wirtschaftsgeographie from LIT Verlag. Honoured with awards by the European Commission, he conducted his post-doctoral research based at universities in the UK and Japan. For almost two decades, his postdoc research focused on the hybridization of managerial systems and subjects sponsored by the Japanese government, and his work regarding the embeddedness of the hybrid factory and the hybrid manager has been published in peer reviewed journals. He has been promoting the agenda of management geography for more than a decade at academic associations such as the Association of American Geographers (AAG), Association of Japanese Geographers (AJG), Euro-Asia Management Studies Association (EAMSA) and Global Conference of Economic Geographers (GCEG). Via the ManGeo Research Group website, he provides a new platform for further dissemination of the concept of management geography especially aimed at young economic geographers and scholars of international business and adjacent disciplines.

Inhalt

Introduction: Management geographyAn Asian perspective focusing on Japan and surrounding regions.- Performance analysis of boundary spanners in multinational enterprises through the lens of management geography.- Changes in the locational conditions of the Japanese machinery and instrument industry in China: A case study of the Dalian Economic and Technological Development Zone.- Management issues in global R&D of Japanese chemical companies.- Small- and medium-sized global-niche firms in Japan: A key for the rejuvenation of Japan's local economy?.- Industrial agglomeration and regional development planning analysis by GIS in the city of Utsunomiya, Tochigi, Japan.- Unique functions of a metropolitan co-working space: A case study in Tokyo, Japan.- How customer service centers in foreign cities serving Japan changed their business?: A case study of the city of Dalian, China.- Factors influencing enterprise development in the inland regions of Fujian province in China.- Transformation of agricultural management in Japan under globalization pressure: A focus on product differentiation strategy.