Our study contributes to imitation learning by clarifying the relationship between a firm’s learning level and details of “concrete” and “abstract” words of advice. In the previous research, the importance of learning by imitation from other firms have been pointed out, but also the difficulty of imitation is pointed out due to causal ambiguity (Shenkar, 2010) or difficulty of complete understanding about production system of other firms (Womack and Jones, 2003). To solve this problem, the importance of learning by “concrete” and “abstract” reciprocating movements has been claimed in previous research (Inoue, 2017; Kusunoki, 2012). However, previous studies have not been demonstrated how “concrete” and “abstract” reciprocal movements change depending on the learning level of the firm. Because of the necessary information and advice changes according to learning level (Shenkar, 2010), it is important for firms to consider it. From the empirical analysis using data of NPS (The New Production System) study group, our hypotheses were partially supported. There is a positive relationship between the learning level of firms with the system and the frequency of "abstract” words.
