從鐵軌到零售：揭開JR東日本拓展購物中心開發的競爭優勢和挑戰

Abstract

公司透過將業務組合多元化，以在各業務單元之間創造協同效應，從而將業務風險降至最低。這篇單一案例研究分析了一家日本鐵路運營商East Japan Railway Company （JR East）集團，探討了他們進入購物中心業務的多元化決策。儘管鐵路運輸服務和購物中心的業務性質存在差異，但競爭分析顯示，他們的購物中心利用鐵路服務的資產和客戶，為他們提供了強大的競爭優勢。多元化評估確定了該公司致力於通過引入共同支付平台和營銷策略，在兩個行業之間創造最大的協同效應。本文進一步檢驗了競爭對手策略和技術發展對JR East協同效應的影響。評估結果表明，有必要提高客戶忠誠度以保持其增長並最大程度地利用其營銷工作的成果。JR East已經在應對挑戰方面採取了一些策略；專注於線下體驗，推出了一個帶有新激勵措施的忠誠計劃，並通過推出金融服務擴大了與客戶的接觸點。在本文的最後，提出了一些建議，以優化這些實施，提出了入境客戶的重要性，改善忠誠計劃，並引導金融服務的介紹。建議還包括學術含義，要在評估公司的協同效應時注意客戶的相關性，以及協同效應和競爭優勢的過時性，呼籲對企業多元化進行長期的研究。

Companies diversify their business portfolio to create synergies among various business units to minimize business risks. This single case study analyzes a Japanese railway operator, East Japan Railway Company (JR East) -group, in their diversification decision into the shopping center business. Despite the difference in business nature between railway transit service and shopping centers, competition analysis revealed that their shopping centers’ utilization of the assets and customers of railway service provided them with strong competitive advantages against their rivals. The diversification assessment identifies that the company strives to create maximum synergies between the two sectors by introducing a common payment platform and marketing strategies. This paper goes further to examine the impacts of competitors’ strategies and the development of technology on JR East’s synergy. The assessment result indicates the need to improve customer loyalty to retain its growth and maximize the outcome of its marketing effort. JR East is already implementing some strategies to cope with the challenges; focusing on off-line experience, introducing a loyalty program with new incentives, and expanding its touchpoints with customers by launching financial services. At the end of this paper, suggestions are made to optimize these implementations by proposing the importance of inbounds, improving the loyalty program, and navigating the introduction of financial services. The suggestions also include academic implications to pay attention to the relatedness of customers when assessing synergies of a company, and obsolescence of synergies, calling for the long-term examination of corporate diversification.