New diversification strategies for the Japanese alcohol industry

Japanese major alcoholic beverage companies, whose businesses are mainly the production and sale of beer products, stand at a strategic crossroads. There are several reasons: a slow decrease in the Japanese population, which leads to a smaller drinking population; diversification of customers' tastes and preferences; a totally saturated beer and low-alcohol beverage market; and a globalization trend that is now entering Asian countries. Therefore it is essential for the alcoholic beverage companies to adopt strategies for future sustainability--one to strengthen its core liquor business and offer a range of beverages other than beer; the other is to expand business opportunities into areas other than the liquor business. These diversified businesses are basically either vertically integrated or founded upon the core competencies, both of which are close to their main business, namely alcohol beverage business. At the same time, other large international beer brewers such as Anheuser-Busch, Heineken, and Lion Nathan, are pursuing a different strategy from the Japanese companies: these competitors are focusing even more on their core beer business. I will explore future strategies for the alcoholic beverage companies.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Yoshimura, Toru, M.B.A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Arnoldo C. Hax.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/39536

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/39536