著者
平野 恭平 三井 泉 藤田 順也
出版者
日本経営学会
雑誌
日本経営学会誌 (ISSN:18820271)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.48, pp.72-85, 2021 (Released:2022-12-16)
参考文献数
20

This article focuses on the foundation phase of the Faculty of Business Administration, which was established in 1949 at Kobe University. It concerns books written by Yasutaro Hirai housed in the Kobe University Library for Social Sciences and analyses the scribbles in those books, which have seemingly been read by many students. These students scribbled all over the books during the limited period from the late 1940s to the mid-1950s. It appears as though the voices of the students from that time are revived through the scribbles. These include support for and criticism of Hirai, who had advocated business administration at the university since the pre-war days, as well as criticism from the standpoint of commerce, which he often mentioned in contrast with business administration. The article attempts to approach the history of the mentalities, focusing on the students, by taking up their inner voices from the scribbles and discovering how they perceived the foundation of the new faculty and a new academic discipline (business administration) as well as the fact that the teachers had mixed feelings about this matter. In modern society, the spread of the SNS has facilitated simultaneous, two-way communication between people. However, for students at that time, library books were one of the few mediums in which they could anonymously express their opinions and ideas to members of the same organization. The books became a place for communication, where those who saw such opinions and ideas could support or argue against them. Thus, library books can be said to have functioned as an SNS. The teacher who wrote the books and the students that read his books talked to each other directly through their life at university, including lectures, thought logically and wrote down their real opinions and feelings. Their scribbles are the traces of such real opinions and feelings and can be considered an “intellectual layer of traces” that has been read and added to over time.
著者
平野 恭平
出版者
政治経済学・経済史学会
雑誌
歴史と経済 (ISSN:13479660)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.57, no.1, pp.1-15, 2014-10-30

During World War II, Japanese companies pursued the development of synthetic fibers as substitutes for such natural fibers as cotton and wool. A well-known case is polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber, industrialized after the war under the brand name Vinylon by Jurashiki Rayon (Kuraray) and Dai-Nippon Cotton Spinning. This paper considers the case of Kanebian, another variety of PVA fiberm produced by Kanegafuchi Cotton Spinning (Kanebo). Kanebian's development was advanced almost concurrently with that of Vinylon but ultimately was suspended, though its realization was close at hand. The reasons why Kuraray succeeded in industrializing Vinylon and establishing its own market lie in its shift from "negative substitution" - the goal of compensating for a shortage of natural fibers -- to "positive substitution," which brought out and commercialized the peculiar attributes and attractions of synthetic fibers as substitutes for natural fibers. This process was the necessary condition for the survival of wartime substitute fibers in the postwar environment. After the war Kanebo made the reconstruction of natural fibers its highest priority, thereby delaying the development of synthetic fibers and widening the gap with Kuraray's progress. The two fibers had reached similar levels of development by the end of the war. But Kanebo's management was negative about Kanebian's prospects because of its defects in quality and cost and therefore was cool toward its further development. Kanebo's engineers worked to address these weaknesses as they emerged in the postwar years, and sought out optimum markets while watching Vinylon's progress closely. Their unrelernting effort and confidence in Kanebian's potential did not sway management's assessment of the product, however, and ultimately Kanebo discontinued the development of Kanebian. The decision to suspend development seems at first glance to have been mistaken given Kuraray's success. It has its own validity and rationality, however, when we take into consideration Kanebo's founding and principal business which was cotton spinning, the postwar recovery of the cotton spinning industry, Kanebian's technical properties and its potential, and the limited support from industrial policy at the time. This article explains this assertion in detail by studying the process from development to suspension, and considers it as an aspect of the shift from "negative" to "positive substitution."
著者
平野 恭平
出版者
Business History Society of Japan
雑誌
経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.45, no.4, pp.4_3-4_28, 2011 (Released:2014-05-23)
被引用文献数
1 1

The Paper aims to elucidate the industrialization of Vinylon of Kuraray, a domestically-developed synthetic fiber, as an attempt to solve the resource problem of Japan. This paper makes an effort to devise it from three viewpoints of the mind-set of top management and engineers, the continuity from prewar to postwar, and the interaction with society and economy (such as the industrial policy, the differentiation fromr other firms, and the market needs). In Kuraray, the limitation of resource had influenced from the technology development to the product development in Soichiro Ohara's thought of substitution of natural fibers, an executive with strong individuality. As a result, though the times' character distorted the search for optimum market, the recognition about new product was modified due to the change of society and economy as well as the slump of business and that resulted in the creation of optimum market. This is a general management phenomenon except the times' character and suggests the importance of marketing in the process from the development of new products to the establishment of market.That is to say, Kuraray set out to develop Vinylon for the purpose of self-sufficiency of fiber resource and the substitution of natural fiber as an “essential fiber” at the beginning. However, to strengthen the ground as a synthetic fiber, it is necessary to respect the fiber's function and to explore new uses, develop product, and promote sale of product taking advantage of the feature of synthetic fiber, which the natural fibers have not. Though the delay in establishing the market resulted in the slump of business, the change of persons' cognition brought about the new idea and practice of marketing. The public offices' needs created by policy have indirectly supported the change. As a result, Kuraray succeeded in establishing the position of Vinylon in the way of practical use clothing and industrial materials.