Mark Fruin, Hongkong Bank of Canada Professor at the University of British Columbia, teaches in the Policy Division of the Faculty of Commerce and Business at UBC. He specializes in the study of comparative and international corporate strategy, and innovation, technology management and knowledge-intensive development in times of rapid social, economic and technical change. He is the author of numerous articles and three books on Japanese management and industrial organization: Kikkoman - Company, Clan and Community (Harvard, 1983), The Japanese Enterprise System - Competitive Strategies and Cooperative Structures (Oxford, 1992), and Knowledge Works - Learning Strategies and Toshiba's Learning Factories (Oxford, 1997). Currently, he is working on two major studies; one a longterm comparison of the international strategies of American and Japanese industrial firms, and the other a study of interorganizational, time-based management. During the 1996-97 academic year, he is on leave at the School of Business, University of Michigan; e-mail: mfruin@umich.edu