IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jjieco/v44y2017icp78-89.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A strategic behavior analysis of why ventures are risky for young people in Japan but not in Silicon Valley

Author

Listed:
  • Rtischev, Dimitry

Abstract

The phenomenon of young people (under 30) starting or working in ventures is common in Silicon Valley but rare in Japan. Avoiding cultural attributions upon which many international comparisons of entrepreneurship are truncated, we apply strategic behavior theory to uncover a rational-choice basis for this phenomenon. We identify individual and organizational players, consider their strategies, and compare equilibria in the institutional context of Japan and the US. We pay close attention to how competition in Japanese educational, labor, and marriage markets differs from such competition in the US to identify factors which raise the career attraction of big firms and thereby fuel adverse selection that hurts ventures. Our conclusions challenge the stereotype that the founders and employees of Silicon Valley ventures are heroic risk-takers whereas the Japanese are much more risk-averse.

Suggested Citation

  • Rtischev, Dimitry, 2017. "A strategic behavior analysis of why ventures are risky for young people in Japan but not in Silicon Valley," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 78-89.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:44:y:2017:i:c:p:78-89
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jjie.2017.03.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0889158317300175
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jjie.2017.03.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Asai, Yukiko, 2015. "Parental leave reforms and the employment of new mothers: Quasi-experimental evidence from Japan," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 72-83.
    2. Bruce Fallick & Charles A. Fleischman & James B. Rebitzer, 2006. "Job-Hopping in Silicon Valley: Some Evidence Concerning the Microfoundations of a High-Technology Cluster," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 88(3), pages 472-481, August.
    3. Satoshi Shimizutani & Izumi Yokoyama, 2006. "Has Japan's Long-term employment Practice Survived? New Evidence Emerging Since the 1990s," Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series d06-182, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    4. Ono, Hiroshi, 2010. "Lifetime employment in Japan: Concepts and measurements," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-27, March.
    5. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Ueno, Yuko, 2013. "Declining long-term employment in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 19-36.
    6. Robert E. Hall & Susan E. Woodward, 2010. "The Burden of the Nondiversifiable Risk of Entrepreneurship," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(3), pages 1163-1194, June.
    7. Kondo, Ayako, 2007. "Does the first job really matter? State dependency in employment status in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 379-402, September.
    8. Junya Hamaaki & Masahiro Hori & Saeko Maeda & Keiko Murata, 2012. "Changes in the Japanese Employment System in the Two Lost Decades," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(4), pages 810-846, October.
    9. Satoshi Shimizutani & Izumi Yokoyama, 2009. "Has Japan's Long-Term Employment Practice Survived? Developments since the 1990S," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 62(3), pages 313-326, April.
    10. Masahiko Aoki, 2001. "Toward a Comparative Institutional Analysis," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262011875, December.
    11. Abe, Yukiko, 2012. "A cohort analysis of male labor supply in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 23-43.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Naiki, Eriko & Ogane, Yuta, 2021. "Are Japanese Full-time Workers Conservative in Starting New Businesses?," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    2. Honjo, Yuji & Kwak, Charee & Uchida, Hirofumi, 2022. "Initial funding and founders’ human capital: An empirical analysis using multiple surveys for start-up firms," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    3. Abhishek Kumbhat & Sushil, 2022. "Interactive Effect of Success Factors for High-Tech Startups: Value Propositions, Target Market and Operational Excellence," International Journal of Global Business and Competitiveness, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 73-88, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Kawaguchi, Akira, 2015. "Internal labor markets and gender inequality: Evidence from Japanese micro data, 1990–2009," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 193-213.
    2. Ohta, Souichi, 2019. "Some evidence on the cohort earnings differentials of men in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 113-125.
    3. KONDO Ayako, 2023. "Scars of the Job Market "Ice-Age"," Discussion papers 23042, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    4. Kyoji Fukao & Cristiano Perugini, 2021. "The Long‐Run Dynamics of the Labor Share in Japan," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 67(2), pages 445-480, June.
    5. Okamoto, Hisashi & Matsuura, Tsukasa, 2015. "The Influence of Corporate Governance on Long-term Employment:A Study Using Data on Japanese Listed Firms," MPRA Paper 64561, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Ueno, Yuko, 2013. "Declining long-term employment in Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 19-36.
    7. MURATA Keiko & HORI Masahiro, 2019. "Causal Mechanisms of the Decline in Long-term Employment in Japan: Evidence from Long-run Panel Data (Japanese)," Discussion Papers (Japanese) 19028, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    8. HAMAAKI Junya & HORI Masahiro & MAEDA Saeko & MURATA Keiko, 2010. "Is the Japanese employment system degenerating? Evidence from the Basic Survey on Wage Structure," ESRI Discussion paper series 232, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    9. Daiji Kawaguchi & Yuko Mori, 2014. "Winning the race against technology," Bank of Japan Working Paper Series 14-E-5, Bank of Japan.
    10. Storz, Cornelia & Riboldazzi, Federico & John, Moritz, 2015. "Mobility and innovation: A cross-country comparison in the video games industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 121-137.
    11. Esteban-Pretel, Julen & Fujimoto, Junichi, 2020. "Non-regular employment over the life-cycle: Worker flow analysis for Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    12. Kambayashi, Ryo & Kato, Takao, 2011. "Long-term Employment and Job Security over the Last Twenty-Five Years: A Comparative Study of Japan and the U.S," IZA Discussion Papers 6183, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Kawaguchi, Daiji & Mori, Yuko, 2016. "Why has wage inequality evolved so differently between Japan and the US? The role of the supply of college-educated workers," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 29-50.
    14. Shimizutani, Satoshi, 2011. "A new anatomy of the retirement process in Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 141-152.
    15. Yokoyama, Izumi & Kodama, Naomi & Higuchi, Yoshio, 2019. "Effects of state-sponsored human capital investment on the selection of training type," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 40-49.
    16. Keishi Fujiyama, 2016. "Asset Impairment Accounting Decisions and Employee Downsizing in Japan," Discussion Paper Series DP2016-10, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University, revised Apr 2018.
    17. Kubo, Katsuyuki & Saito, Takuji, 2012. "The effect of mergers on employment and wages: Evidence from Japan," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 263-284.
    18. Hashimoto, Ken-ichi & Ono, Yoshiyasu & Schlegl, Matthias, 2023. "Structural unemployment, underemployment, and secular stagnation," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 209(C).
    19. Satoshi Shimizutani, 2013. "Social Security Earnings Test and the Labour Supply of the Elderly: New Evidence from Unique Survey Responses in Japan," The Japanese Economic Review, Japanese Economic Association, vol. 64(3), pages 399-413, September.
    20. Ken-ichi Hashimoto & Yoshiyasu Ono & Matthias Schlegl, 2020. "Structural Unemployment, Underemployment, and Secular Stagnation," CESifo Working Paper Series 8318, CESifo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ventures; Entrepreneurship; Japan; Silicon Valley; Innovation; IT industry;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L26 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Entrepreneurship
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • I21 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Analysis of Education
    • D02 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jjieco:v:44:y:2017:i:c:p:78-89. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622903 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.