This book summarizes highlights of the investigation of “An Elucidation of the Role of Institutional Systems in Characterizing Technology Development Trajectories – A Global Comparative Analysis of Manufacturing Technology and Information Te- nology in the Enhancement of Business Practice” supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scienti?c Research (S) by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology/Japan Society for Science Policy over the period 2002–2006. Background and objectives of the investigation are summarized as follows: (a) Japan ranks far below the level of the USA with respect to the development and utilization of information technology (IT) in the information society that emerged in the 1990s. (b) This can be attributed toa vicious cycle between Japan’s non-elastic institutions, insuf?cient utilization of the potential bene?ts of IT, and economic stagnation. (c) The source of such a vicious cycle can be derived from the fundamental d- ferences of the characterizing process of technology between manufacturing technology (MT) and IT during their diffusion processes. This investigation - tempted to elucidate this mechanism. Noteworthy ?ndings obtained include: (a) MT has been developed largely by the supply side and its functionality is - tablished during the stage of its supply to the market. In contrast, IT is strongly driven by the demand side and its functionality is created through diffusion in a self-propagating way. This contrast can be clearly observed in the dramatic advancement of Japan’s mobile phone industry in the late 1990s.

Traditionally, innovation has been considered difficult to manage, as it occurs through contingent discoveries and inventions. For effective innovation management, it is necessary to determine what provides new value to customers and achieve this new value efficiently, while solving the technical problems. This book explores how innovation management for industrial revitalization and activation are conducted in Japanese companies. 'Innovation' has diverse definitions, but the editors of this book have adopted the one proposed by J A Schumpeter. The features of innovation management in Japanese companies are considered systematically in the book. Positive analyses using questionnaires and innovation management strategy in individual industries and companies is also explored in detail.

This book assesses the achievements of the software engineering discipline as represented by IT vendors in Japan in order to deepen understanding of the mechanisms of how software engineering capabilities relate to IT vendors’ business performance and business environment from the perspective of innovation and engineering management. Based on the concepts of service science and science for society, the volume suggests how to improve the sophistication of services between the demand side, i.e., IT user companies, and the supply side, i.e., IT vendors, simultaneously. The author and his colleagues developed a structural model including innovational paths, such as service innovation, product innovation and process innovation, and a measurement model including the seven software engineering capabilities: deliverables, project management, quality assurance, process improvement, research and development, human resource development and customer contact. Then they designed research on software engineering excellence and administered it with the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Information-Technology Promotion Agency. Through statistical analyses of the results, they found that human resource development and R&D are significant fundamental conditions to improve the quality of the deliverables and that IT firms with high levels of deliverables, derived from high levels of human resource development, quality assurance, project management and process improvement, tend to sustain high profitability. In addition, they developed a measurement model based on Porter’s five forces and Barney’s resource-based view. A regression tree analysis suggested that manufacturer spin-off vendors tend to expand business with well-resourced R&D, whereas user spin-off vendors tend to depend heavily on parent company demand.

Discusses Japanese manufacturing, business diversification, research and development, product development, innovation, societal diffusion, and option sharing

This new book gathers together a collection of case studies of innovation in various industries in modern Japan, challenging accepted notions of Japanese innovation and emphasizing new and diverse trends and practices.

This book provides a comprehensive look at the features of KPM, including its emphasis on creativity and teamwork, its broader OC open value systemOCO as opposed to a OC closed technical systemOCO, its close links with corporate strategy and human resource development, and the support infrastructure needed for advancing KPM. Chapters cover both the theory and practice of KPM, citing cases of information and communications technology (ICT) and pharmaceutical companies, among others. KPM holds special relevance today as global competition is increasingly reducing the lifecycle of organizations. Managers will find in KPM not only a way to survive the shake-up, but also a framework of value creation for the next generation.

Technology is a key factor in global industrial competition, and Japan's national system of technological innovation has been vital to the economic success of the country since World War II. This book examines the historical development of the system, incl

What has gone wrong in Japan that has led to innovation crisis? Prof. Eiichi Yamaguchi has been committed to answer this question, and his quest has spanned several years and academic disciplines. Initially it appeared as if it had no context, but when he put the pieces together, he realized that it was actually one story. This book is a summary of his research over the last 20 years, especially after he moved out of the field of physics, to which he had devoted 21 years. He felt that it was essential for him to do his bit to save this sinking ship, or it would be disrespectful to the future generation. The book integrates his research on innovation policy, innovation theory, and trans-science. It begins with a detailed story of the innovation of blue LEDs, for which three Japanese scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014. It describes the current innovation and science crises in Japan and presents evidence that the strong international competitiveness of science-based industries in the United States is a result of the invention of the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) system. It discusses a new theory of innovation structures, showing the error in Clayton M. Christensen’s argument of “disruptive innovation.” It also proposes a new concept for “paradigm disruptive innovation,” emphasizing that abduction and transilience are essential factors for accomplishing it and that their decline has led to the innovation crisis in Japan. Finally, it analyzes the future vision of the innovation ecosystem, which promotes abduction and transilience, for scientists to develop new science-based industries.

Recognizing that a capacity to innovate and commercialize new high-technology products is increasingly a key for the economic growth in the environment of tighter environmental and resource constraints, governments around the world have taken active steps to strengthen their national innovation systems. These steps underscore the belief of these governments that the rising costs and risks associated with new potentially high-payoff technologies, their spillover or externality-generating effects and the growing global competition, require national R&D programs to support the innovations by new and existing high-technology firms within their borders. The National Research Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) has embarked on a study of selected foreign innovation programs in comparison with major U.S. programs. The "21st Century Innovation Systems for the United States and Japan: Lessons from a Decade of Change" symposium reviewed government programs and initiatives to support the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, government-university- industry collaboration and consortia, and the impact of the intellectual property regime on innovation. This book brings together the papers presented at the conference and provides a historical context of the issues discussed at the symposium.