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British trading companies and tacit knowledge seeding: diversifying Japanese industrialisation, 1906–1918

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  • Learmouth, Tom

Abstract

This paper analyses the broadening out of Japanese industrialisation into new sectors after the Russo-Japanese War. It does so by compiling new evidence to analyse the emergence of a rubber industry in Kobe – one which later swept global markets with rubber footwear in the inter-war period. Rubber manufacturing knowledge was seeded in Japan by British trading company H. & W. Greer, who established factories in Kobe for J. G. Ingram and Dunlop. In a process adhering closely to Steven Klepper’s heritage theory, workers who had acquired tacit rubber compounding knowledge from Ingram and Dunlop formed a string of Japanese spin-off firms which clustered around the two factories. This study emphasises the role of firm-specific foreign knowledge compatible with local conditions in latecomer development. It also improves our understanding of the role of British trading companies in the global spread of industrial knowledge during the first era of globalisation.

Suggested Citation

  • Learmouth, Tom, 2026. "British trading companies and tacit knowledge seeding: diversifying Japanese industrialisation, 1906–1918," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 138071, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:138071
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    File URL: https://researchonline.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/138071/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Guido Buenstorf & Steven Klepper, 2009. "Heritage and Agglomeration: The Akron Tyre Cluster Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 705-733, April.
    2. Steven Klepper, 2011. "Nano-economics, spinoffs, and the wealth of regions," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 37(2), pages 141-154, September.
    3. Catherine Welch & Rebecca Piekkari & Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki & Eriikka Paavilainen-Mantymaki, 2011. "Theorising from case studies: Towards a pluralist future for international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 42(5), pages 740-762, June.
    4. Geoffrey Jones, 1984. "The Growth and Performance of British Multinational Firms before 1939: The Case of Dunlop," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 37(1), pages 35-53, February.
    5. Jones, Geoffrey, 2000. "Merchants to Multinationals: British Trading Companies in the 19th and 20th Centuries," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198294504.
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    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • R14 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Land Use Patterns
    • J01 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics: General

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