Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors influencing contemporary Japanese business environment mainly in the field of strategic management and, therefore, having influence on corporate performance and its measurement in selected manufacturing companies located in Japan in respect to their key business perspectives focused on people, processes and systems, innovations, finance, social responsibility and ecology, and that in relation to ongoing economic crises and a fundamental transformation of mature societies (in particular in USA, Japan and Western Europe). Design/methodology/approach – The research involved assembling key academic and other literature on the subject of trends in strategic management and performance measurement in Japan as well as semi-structured interviews with managers within manufacturing companies located in Japan that deal with performance measurement, finance, strategic management, etc. and a review of various internal management reports. Findings – The research has been useful in identifying companies that respond to current changes and trends the fastest and the most effective. Research limitations/implications – Among the limitations of the conclusions belongs rather a small sample of companies involved in the research. Moreover, the respondents may have seen their own company more favourably than an objective outsider would have done. Originality/value – This paper shares insights on current trends influencing Japanese business environment and how these trends are implemented, used and updated in a selected sample of companies located in Japan.

The article deals with an effective strategic action within a company in the 21st century – the ability to cope with changing demands without losing focus and anticipating changes before they arise. It aims to create a dynamic performance framework based on the utilization of synergy effects of selected European and Asian management systems (Bata Management System, Japanese Management System and Amoeba Management System). The framework integrates basic elements that enable every aspect of the company (people, processes and systems, innovations, finance, social responsibility and ecology) to be monitored. Special emphasis is put on customers and innovations as a fundamental basis of competitiveness for firms while continually improving the quality of processes and products. Mutual synergy effects of these elements shall ensure fast communication, build lasting value not only for the company, but also for customers and employees and improve corporate performance and efficiency. All perspectives are fully integrated with each other and create a framework that is periodical, dynamic and competitive and that is able to withstand irrelevant disturbances and that is at the same time responsive to relevant changes.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate current trends in selected management systems and analyses their mutual synergy effects to remaster contemporary enterprise performance management systems in the business sphere. Design/methodology/approach This research involves assembling key academic texts and other literature on the subject of changes in management systems worldwide and their influence on remastering contemporary enterprise performance management systems. The literature is reviewed using a systematic approach. More than 3,000 papers and studies are identified and content analysed. Findings The main trends and emerging themes of management practices in the current business world and their synergy effects are identified, reviewed and classified. Originality/value The field of performance management systems and their remastering based on individual corporate needs is an emergent area of study. This paper is relevant to academics, as well as the corporate world, because it introduces summarized results from an extensive number of published studies on the topic of trends in current management systems, their mutual synergy effects and their influence on performance management systems.

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The main purpose of this paper is to identify current trends and practices that have been influencing Japanese business environment and their consequences to corporate world by conducting a review of existing empirical evidence on this topic. An in-depth review of more than 1,600 articles published in high-quality academic journals in the areas of Business Management, Accounting, Social Sciences, Engineering, Economics, Econometrics, Operations Research Management Science, Psychology, Public Administration, Finance and Decision Sciences was pursued following a multiple-step process. Furthermore, the trends were classified into six categories based on their occurrence frequency and described in detail. These trends involve: reformulating strategic management principles, less lifelong employment orientation and change of traditional HRM practices, raising labour force participation, female participation in management and improving education, use of non-financial performance indicators, decomposition of a large organization into smaller units and opening up to outside influence. Each of the categories contained specific practices that interacted with each other, shaping and giving strength to each individual category. Finally, the insights extracted from the literature review were synthesized and directions to future research were provided.