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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Best practices in the Japanese software market

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Globalization of software markets is driving software firms to seek market share and growth opportunities from leading software markets in the world. As the second largest software market, Japan offers high growth potential for foreign software firms. In Japan, the information and communication technology industry is the largest market sector, and the size of the software market in Japan was US$131.8 billion in 2004. Despite great opportunities in the Japanese market, entering the market and conducting successful business there can be difficult due to cultural differences between Japan and Western countries. In this multi-case study we focus on nine software firms in order to examine the best practices which these firms perceived as critical for successful operations in the Japanese software market. The findings from this study indicate that software firms operating in business-to-business market niches rank factors related to the personal marketing of products higher than factors related to mass marketing. These firms value competence in the Japanese language, the general competence of personnel, and customer satisfaction and honesty more than they value brand image. These software companies also emphasize the value of an integrated product strategy that combines the uniqueness and quality of the product with packaging and product adaptation or customization. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.