40(1) 1-12, Apr, 2015 Lead authorCorresponding author
This article discusses the competitive relationship between two Japanese road-racer bicycle components companies, Suntour and Shimano. After a lengthy period of comparable performance during the 1970s and 1980s, the development of an innovative product by Shimano enabled the company to overtake Suntour. The latter part of this article discusses two implications from the case the absence of exception handling systems in corporate division of labor systems and a new pattern of organizational isomorphism.