Computer networks and interfirm relationships in the automobile industry: A comparative study of Japan and Korea

This paper presents the results of comparative research between the Japanese and Korean automobile industries through empirical research on applications in the interfirm network and the effects on management. Almost all Japanese automobile parts suppliers installed an interfirm network in the latter half of the 1980s. In the case of Korea, it was in the middle 1990s. The type of interfirm networks both in Japan and Korea are vertical networks in which the assembler takes leadership for the construction and maintenance of their interfirm network. The kind of interchanged data on the network reflects the interfirm relationship between the assembler and the parts suppliers. Data in the design and technology field are interchanged via the interfirm network more in Japan than in Korea. This result demonstrates that the assembler and the parts suppliers have a closer relationship, such as “design-in”, in Japan than in Korea.