Profit maximization and the Japanese firm: a reply to Coffey and Tomlinson

The Coffey-Tomlinson challenge to my view that the behavior of the Japanese firm is best understood without reference to profit maximization is met by arguing that (1) the outsourcing of production in Japan is, by itself, insufficient to warrant a claim of profit maximization; (2) behavior that turns out to maximize profits may not actually be motivated by profit maximization; and (3) the Coffey-Tomlinson argument applies to too small a portion of the Japanese economy to draw general conclusions from it.