CIRJE-F-416 "Selection or Imitation? : Organizational Evolution in the Japanese Cotton Industry, 1905-1935:"
Author Name Okazaki, Tetsuji
Date April 2006
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Abstract

This paper explores the mechanisms by which the industrial organization of the Japanese cotton spinning industry changed over time, focusing on the rise and fall of the firms that integrated spinning and weaving processes. The basic idea is to decompose the change in the proportion of integrated firms into factors representing "selection" and "imitation" in an evolutionary sense. It was found that the factor which made the largest contribution differed between the growing phase and the declining phase of integrated firms. In the growing phase, imitation, namely the change in the attribute of the incumbent firms, was the major factor in the proportion change. On the other hand, in the declining phase, selection, in particular, birth rate, was the major factor, not only in the case where the proportion is measured in terms of firm number but also in terms of production.