Transaction Structure in Japanese Small Business Sector.

An attempt has been made to examine some aspects of transaction structure of the small business sector in Japanese manufacturing. It has been found that there are some interesting findings in the industrial organization of the sector; (1) In the transactions of intermediate goods with manufacturing, small businesses have more frequent transactions with other small businesses than with large firms. On the other hand, large firms have more transactions with each other than with small businesses; (2) The transactions between SMEs and large firms, and between SMEs themselves vary from industry to industry, depending on production/demand structure of an industry and product structure of its SMEs sector; (3) In engineering, such as electrical machinery and transport equipment, the intra-industry transactions from small businesses to large firms are great, suggesting a larger extent of subcontracting relationships. Also, textiles, clothing, and printing and publishing also have higher subcontracting transactions. The relationships are different between the two groups. Copyright 1999 by Kluwer Academic Publishers