Snow fell quietly the night before and the morning sun was shining brightly under the blue sky the next day. Looking out to the snow-white garden from a large w- dow, Sid Winter, one of the contributors to this book, was beaming with smile. It was such a nice and calm morning in the middle of December at a summer resort hotel one hour from Tokyo. That morning, he was going to present the last paper to our conference and to everyone’s surprise, in the very same morning a praising book review of the Japanese translation of his famous book appeared in the major economic journal in Japan. Everyone congratulated him for the coincidence and it was such a happy ending to the three-day conference. The atmosphere of the conference, out of which this book grew, was very st- ulating and cordial at the same time. Without picking on the minor defects of the presented papers, every participant was trying to contribute by probing the issues presented deeper and trying suggestions to make the papers better. Among others, Bruce Kogut was responding fondly on Jiro Nonaka’s comment on his paper and Dong-Sung Cho was trying to expand even more the already very broad conceptual framework that Hiro Itami presented. For sure, the dynamics of knowledge creation was at work in the conference room and the dining hall.

Best known as the leading historian of French railways, François Caron has also done significant work on topics as varied as electricity, water and steam power, the theory of innovation, the structure of enterprise, and other aspects of economic development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this volume, he brings together these different facets of his expertise in order to present a broad panorama of modern technology. Caron shows how artisanal know-how was adapted, expanded, and formalized during the three industrial revolutions that swept over Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States in a comprehensive analysis of this long, complex, and continuous historical process, leading up to the twenty-first century. Thus, he illustrates the increasingly fruitful interaction between technological and scientific knowledge in modern times.

Since the 1990s, Japanese firms have sought to expand their capacity for innovation by incorporating Western management practices into their organizational culture. This combination of Japanese and Western management practices has been highly successful — Japanese firms are presently at the forefront of technological and service innovation in areas such as digital consumer electronics, mobile phone services, and the games industry. Much can be learned from the success of Japanese companies in these areas.This book presents an analysis of the business model unique to Japanese firms, emphasising four special features: the vertical value chain model, cross-industry collaboration, dynamic knowledge integration, and strategic innovation capability. Drawing upon in-depth case studies, this book presents a new theory of knowledge integration, and places special emphasis on inter- and intra-organizational collaboration as a source of strategic innovation. It is a good reference source for academics, graduate students and professionals in the field of innovation management.

Innovation is the motor of economic change. Over the last fifteen years, researches in innovation processes have emphasised the systemic features of innovation. Whilst innovation system analysis traditionally takes a static institutional approach, cluster analysis focuses on interaction and the dynamics of technology and innovation. First, the volume gives an overview of the different levels of analysis from which the innovation behaviour of firms has been observed in the past. The book then presents a distinct cluster approach as a useful and innovative tool to analyse the configuration and dynamics of networks of actors involved in innovative processes. This approach emphasises the possibilities of enhancing cluster benefits by introducing virtual links between cluster actors. Empirical evidence is provided for the automotive components and the telecommunication industries. By restricting the discussion to Germany and Italy, the authors are able to explore the role that national innovation systems play as a framework in which clusters operate.

Innovation, generally based on curiosity and intuition, is defined as a discovery, invention and an R&D process that brings solutions to a social, environmental and technological problem and also that creates value and meets communal needs in product, process, market, organizational and socialfields. All over the world, investments are based on capital accumulation; the idea of having more output with less input is based on production info; and technologies, production volume, the rise of motivation are based on labor force and therefore, they are all accepted as indicators of economic growth. Capital accumulation, technological developments and increase in labor force constitute the main dynamics of growth of the global world economy. Technological progress doesn’t only provide high output and productivity but it also creates economic growth. Since growth in economic sense corresponds to the rise in tools and products that are used to meet human needs, innovations create new employment and business lines at this point. On the other hand; innovations, in social sense, fight against poverty, inequality and also exclusion being related to them. Innovations offer technological, effective, productive and sustainable solutions to these problems in social sense. While developed countries that are more advanced in technology and economic growth, constitute only one fifth of the world population, they use four of five of the world resources and therefore, the gap between developing countries and them is increasing everyday. This situation is seen as an obstacle in front of the aim of a sustainable world. Since the direction of technological innovation is determined by social and economic needs, innovation types such as radical (disruptive), incremental, contrary, operational and marketing innovations create an effect of leverage with its niche role in sustainable development. Many problems, which are untouched in economic, social and technological senses and also which are seen desperate to solve, can only be solved through paradigm-shifting and disruptive (radical) innovations that should be applied in a way that will break the existing taboos. Disruptive innovations create new business lines by bringing radical solutions for the problems that seem unsolvable and stepwise (incremental, staggered) innovations strenghten the sub-innovations in these new businesslines. At this point; opening the way for innovations, attaching importance to creative ideas to increase efficiency, evaluating the contribution of innovation and also managing the processes well are quite important in innovation management. The authors in this book consider innovations in different fields by evaluating the effects of innovations on labor market, society and economy in order to manage the process well and contribute to it

This book outlines how network technology can support, foster and enhance the Knowledge Management, Sharing and Development (KMSD) processes in professional environments through the activation of both formal and informal knowledge flows. Understanding how ICT can be made available to such flows in the knowledge society is a factor that cannot be disregarded and is confirmed by the increasing interest of companies in new forms of software-mediated social interaction. The latter factor is in relation both to the possibility of accelerating internal communication and problem solving processes, and/or in relation to dynamics of endogenous knowledge growth of human resources.The book will focus specifically on knowledge flow (KF) processes occurring within networked communities of professionals (NCP) and the associated virtual community environments (VCE) that foster horizontal dynamics in the management, sharing and development of fresh knowledge. Along this line a further key issue will concern the analysis and evaluation techniques of the impact of Network Technology use on both community KF and NCP performance. - The proposal of a taxonomy of Network Technology uses to support formal and informal knowledge flows - Analyses how Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 technology is deeply modifying the dynamics connected to KF and KM - Discusses dynamics underlying horizontal KF sharing processes within NCP

The Dynamics of Corporate America and Innovation provides a concise and comprehensive review of business types and ownerships, emphasizes strategies to sustain business operations; describes the place of technology in business, evaluates innovation management in corporate America, and describes the signifi cance of the global supply chain. This text compliments many years of academic research work. This book serves as a resource for business professionals, college students, managers, organizational leaders, professors, and educators alike. Recent changes in corporate America, the revolving door syndrome, and the urge of technocrats are redefining business and management. Chapter 1 introduces the dynamics of corporate America and addresses the nature of the business structure. Chapter 2, presents elements of business ownership in corporate America. Chapter 3 introduces the nature of innovation. Chapter 4 introduces global supply chain; Chapter 5 introduces elements of information technology and Information Systems. Chapter 6 presents business and strategic management in corporate America, while Chapter 7 presents the summary or conclusion. The glossary section helps to explain some of the business jargon used in the chapters of the book. The aim was to make it a straightforward and easy read.

Japanese companies have become successful because of their skill and expertise at creating organizational knowledge. Organizational knowledge is not only the creation of new knowledge, but also disseminating it throughout the organization, and embodying it in products, services, and systems. Knowledge is the new competitive resource, and its creation and utilization is a dynamic, interactive process. Knowledge is used as the basic unit of analysis to explain firm behavior; a business creates and processes knowledge. Knowledge may be explicit or tacit; this study treats them as complements that form a dynamic relationship. The individual interacts with the organization through knowledge; knowledge creation occurs at the individual, group, and organizational levels. The forms of knowledge interaction (between tacit and explicit, and between individual and firm) produce four major processes of knowledge conversion: from tacit to explicit, explicit to explicit, explicit to tacit, and tacit to tacit. Japanese companies create new knowledge by converting tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge. The book has three goals: to formalize a generic model of organizational knowledge creation, explain why certain Japanese companies have been continuously successful in innovation, and develop a universal model of company management based on convergence of knowledge practices in Japan and the world. First presents a philosophical exposition of knowledge and its application to managemen, then the core concepts of knowledge creation, with four modes of knowledge conversion. The Matsushita company is used to illustrate the process model of organization knowledge creation. The two traditional styles of management (top-down and bottom-up) are shown not to be effective in fostering the dynamic necessary to create organizational knowledge, and a new organization structure considered most conducive to knowledge creation is proposed. (TNM).

Exploring the theoretical concept of collaborative dynamic capabilities, this book illustrates how service innovation can be achieved in an era of technological convergence. Focusing on e-healthcare systems within hospitals and private businesses, the author provides detailed case studies and answers topical questions about generating service innovation across different industries. Making a new and thought-provoking contribution to research on innovation and technology management, this useful book engages with theory and provides applicable solutions for practitioners to implement in the future.

Despite the globalization of accounting standards occurring through convergence to International Financial Reporting Standards, local accounting systems are deeply intertwined with each country’s unique institutions such as its corporate system, disclosure practices and enforcement mechanisms. First, this book empirically analyzes the effects of globalization and localization of accounting rules on corporate behavior such as earnings management, signaling, investment behavior and dividend payout policy. Second, the book unravels the economic consequences of disclosure based on the concept of self-disciplining enforcement such as management forecasts, environmental disclosures and risk disclosures by Japanese firms. This volume is a step forward in understanding the link between accounting and corporate behavior based on a new institutional accounting approach.