SME Global Development: Comparing Germany with Japan

         
Author Name IWAOMTO Koichi (Senior Fellow, RIETI)
Creation Date/NO. July 2016 16-P-010
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Abstract

This paper describes the results of the research not covered in my previous paper "Implications for the Development of Local Economies and SMEs in Japan: Perspective from a field survey conducted on Germany, the EU's strongest economy" which was conducted after another PDP on the same theme, from the view of small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) global development. Although Germany was regarded previously as the "sick man of Europe," it is currently the sole leader in Europe. During this period, strong SMEs, especially those referred to as "the hidden champions," played a major role. Analyzing this phenomenon would provide us the key to raising the status of Japanese SMEs to that of global niche top (GNT). In principle, these enterprises develop products that are sellable around the world. We previously discussed and reported on the first part, which partly contributed to policymaking of the Japanese government. However, we are still conducting sampling surveys on the latter part. Japanese companies are the weakest in the world in forecasting demand. In order to surmount this difficulty, it is necessary to grasp Germany's SME global development comprehensively.