ABSTRACT
The strategies of individual firms strictly adhered to the general national strategy associated with keiretsu interests, by which corporate strategy and its influence on a firm's future performance limited the development of the necessary research base. The study also explores the idiosyncratic effect of keiretsu groupings and the complementary role of industry associations in linking government organizations and firms to accommodate the interests of keiretsu groupings and government goals by means of formal and informal forces. As the first bloc's average capacities were small and the newly constructed capacity was much larger, to compensate the first bloc MITI and the industry association called attention to the stable operation of the first bloc. In this early configuration, individual companies in the industry actually served as manufacturing plants for an entire keiretsu group.
