The Embedded Corporation: Corporate Governance and Employment Relations in Japan and the United States

Is there one best way to run the modern business corporation? What is the appropriate balance between shareholders, executives, and employees? These questions are being vigorously debated as layoffs, scandals, and restructurings rattle companies around the world. The common assumption is that globalization is merging the varieties of corporate capitalism. Yet, as this book shows, corporations in Japan and the United States are responding differently to the pressures unleashed by globalization. In America, shareholders have emerged as dominant while employment is more transitory and market-oriented. In Japan, shareholders are gaining influence but employees still play a key role in corporate strategy and governance. In "The Embedded Corporation", Sanford Jacoby traces this enduring diversity to national differences in economic history and social norms, and, paradoxically, to global competition itself. The book's vantage point for exploring the varieties of capitalism is the...