Study on Overseas Transfer of Fundamental Technology for Agricultural Machinery

In this study, we aimed to discuss some cases that the Japanese Local Small and Medium sized Enterprises (hereinafter ”SMEs”) Farm Machinery/Facility Manufacturer (hereinafter ”FMFM”) transferred their Fundamental Technology for Agricultural Machinery (hereinafter ”FTAM”) for business expansions overseas, which in turn contributed to the economic revitalization of the local area. Firstly, we defined that the competiveness of SMEs-FMFM was links made through local business ties. To elaborate, labor-intensive cooperate activities such as “Research and Development”, “Production and Sales” and “Employment”, derived from long standing connections of communities. Secondly, we conducted surveys to identify the key factors when operating overseas: decision-making, planning, and succeeding in the field, etc. We found that the SEMs-FMFM owners had strong ideologies of contributing socially and economically to the field country by placing high priority on relationship rationality when making business decisions. Additionally, the key to success, especially in developing countries, was by selecting a mediator who fully comprehended the technology-oriented network of the field country. In other word, the most important factor of the overseas business expansion was creating and expanding social capital in the field country. We concluded that the most effective way of formulating social capital was by relocating to on-site production as well as transferring the FTAM to the field employees. On the other hand, local businesses could convert from labor-intensive to knowledge-intensive cooperate activity: innovative research and development on production, strategic planning on a global scale etc. The findings suggested that the SMEs-FMFM overseas expansion not only led to the structural transformation of the Japanese Agricultural Machinery Manufacturing Industries, but also it has maintained and improved the FTAM. Moreover, by attracting a different demographic of prospective employee, it may lead to economic revitalization.