Strategic Decision-Making in Japanese Trading Companies: Case Studies of Information Search Activities

ABSTRACT The paper describes an investigation into the information search activities of senior Japanese executives involved in strategic decision-making in Japanese trading companies. The research task was conducted over a twelve-month period between 2000-2001, at five well-known Japanese kaisha (see Appendix 1 for a list of Japanese expressions used in this paper) headquartered in Tokyo. This paper identifies sources of information that are dev-eloped and used by executive decision-makers in evaluating strategic alternatives. As well modes of access to the identified sources are highlighted and analysed. Results from the study indicate the prominence of distinctive Japanese managerial practices such as nemawashi and settai, in developing information sources. As well it was found that these practices strongly influence how information sources are accessed. Executive decision-makers from the Presidential level to Divisional Manager level who participated in this study were emphatic in their belief that strategic decision-making in most situations is reliant upon the network of information sources cultivated by decision-makers as well as their skill in accessing the various sources.