Much of the social network literature has relied on publicly available records of networking activities to construct large datasets amenable to statistical and structural networking analysis. This reliance on public records means that informal networks are likely to receive relatively less attention, which may explain why intra-industry loops in Japan have experienced little empirical exploration to date.

This and the next chapter are about intra-industry loops, and thus about informal networking. Main objective of this chapter is to offer an explorative description, based on field research involving interviews and questionnaires, of the networking patterns evident within these loops. In addition, I present industry life cycle stage as one possible contingency mediating networking characteristics in intra-industry loops. To these ends, I explore and compare loop networking in three industries: micromachines, semiconductor equipment, and apparel.

Following a discussion of the case selection criteria and brief information about data collection, I describe the most salient characteristics of each industry, including products, history and economic status, as well as major firms, associations, government agencies, universities, and media. I then present my findings about the characteristics of firm networking, both at the level of the entire network and broken down by category of networking partner (associations, government, etc.). The results suggest that Japanese firms may draw most heavily on intra-industry loop networking, in rising and declining industries.