ABSTRACT
American service enterprises in the Pacific operate out of a home economy in which their growth has been aided by the size of its internal market. American service enterprises are encountering major challenges in the Pacific, and these raise questions about managerial capacities for entrepreneurship. The scope for American service enterprises in Japan, meanwhile, was severely restricted by the close informal bonds between Japanese General Trading Companies, manufacturing firms, and banks, especially within major industry groups, as well as by regulatory arrangements intended to preserve the domestic character of the nation’s service sector. The operations of American service enterprises in the Asia-Pacific region have expanded with the growth of trade in manufactures and primary products between the US, Japan, and the industrializing East Asian states. US-Japan rivalry in the product markets of the industrializing East Asian states has provided a secondary regional context for expansion by American service enterprises.
