Table 3 Properties of representative Toyota’s partners involved in four groups
Groups | Characteristics of alliance portfolios | Representative Toyota’s partners | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Patent quality | Degree of collaboration | |||
Potential partners | HIGH | LOW | Mitsubishi | - Blending PLA with other biodegradable plastics to improve heat resistance |
Kanebo | - Japan’s best PLA textile company and acquisition of PLA processing facilities that can produce 500 tons annually | |||
Key partners | HIGH | HIGH | Mitsui | - Establishment of bioplastic plant with US chemical company Dow in Brazil - Establishment of “Toyota bio Indonesia”, joint venture of Toyota and MISUI to sell bioplastic produced by Toyota |
Shimadzu | - Toyota took over bioplastic production plant from Shimadzu in 2002 | |||
Nominal partners | LOW | LOW | Gosen | - Japanese companies (sports equipment manufacturing) selling fishing supplies and rackets (such as tennis, soft tennis, and badminton) |
Unitika | - Commercialization of “Jekoto”, an intensively developed biomass plastic business. This is a polyamide-based engineering plastic using a raw material derived from biomass - Acquired production capacity of 500 tons annually from the factory in Uji City in Kyoto prefecture in July 2012 and completed testing the Jekoto plant | |||
Diligent partners | LOW | HIGH | Hitachi | - In 2010, developed an epoxy with heat resistant resin with lignin in the main raw material - Hitachi recently expressed an interest in the production of biomass-derived plastic |