著者

Takeaki Wada

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.17, no.1, pp.1-10, 2018-02-15 (Released:2018-02-15)

参考文献数

16

被引用文献数

4

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A strategy that uses the productive performance of a manufacturing site (or genba), noted as a strength of Japan’s manufacturing industry by Fujimoto (2003), might also be called a capability-based cost leadership strategy (CBCL strategy). In the 1990s, this strategy ceased to function due to environment changes, and the international competitiveness of Japan’s manufacturing industry declined. As a means of breaking through those circumstances, Fujimoto emphasized strengthening market performance and choosing a differentiation strategy for appealing to consumers based on high product quality. In the end, however, the performance of Japan’s manufacturing industry is restored after the environment changed to become favorable to a CBCL strategy such as rising labor costs in newly developing countries and a shift to a weaker yen. This suggests that many Japanese manufacturers could not shift to differentiation strategies based on enhanced competitiveness in the market, and CBCL strategies were left in place.

著者

Takeaki Wada

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0181119b, (Released:2019-02-07)

参考文献数

24

被引用文献数

2

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Many small and medium-sized enterprises' managers hesitate to launch new businesses for the diversification or business change. In the case of new business launching by Yamato Industrial and Yamaguchi Kasei, decline of their existing businesses was a threat, and simultaneously, it has become an opportunity for launching new business, just as the saying “tough times bring opportunity.” In addition, the experience of launching a second business, rather than experience at startup, will motivate managers to launch businesses continuously.

著者

Takeaki WADA

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.16, no.3, pp.137-147, 2017-06-15 (Released:2017-06-15)

参考文献数

18

被引用文献数

1 4

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Creatures differentiate themselves into various species through the process of evolution wherein individuals adapt to their environment. Similarly, products adapt to the environment of each country to evolve into products with completely different characteristics. This paper discusses computer role-playing games (CRPGs), which have evolved into different products in Japan from those in the West despite having the same roots. In the West, CRPGs emerged from table-top role-playing games (TRPGs) that reproduced it with video games. Through the technical developments thereafter, many TRPG fans became involved in the development. This was to recreate similar “fun” as TRPGs and emphasize “story developments based on the free selection of actions” and “realistic simulations in virtual worlds.” On the other hand, importation from Western CRPGs was the basis of Japanese CRPGs. Japan came into contact with CRPGs first instead of with TRPGs. The elements of CRPGs were different from the essential elements of TRPGs. The elements differed with regard to the following characteristics: (1) “fixed storylines” due to the technical limitations of CRPGs at the time; (2) the “systems that bring about character development by accumulating experience points and increasing the levels” were considered to be “fun”; (3) the anime-style character designs influenced by Japan’s manga and anime culture were further added and diffused as CRPG standards in Japan. This resulted in the genre known as Japanese role-playing games, which sought after a different type of “fun” that have heterogeneity compared with TRPG and CRPG in the West.

著者

Takeaki Wada

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0201013a, (Released:2020-11-11)

参考文献数

15

被引用文献数

1

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In closed innovation (CI), each firm does R&D on its own; however, on the other hand, in open innovation (OI), companies use knowledge from external sources when necessary or let other firms use their proprietary technologies. Chesbrough (2003) pointed out the effectiveness of OI. OI is accompanied by (1) outsourcing dilemma that prevents a firm from getting a competitive advantage when rival firms can also gain the knowledge from same external sources, (2) integrator's dilemma, which occur when firms sell parts to assemblers that produce and sell the same product, thus becoming formidable rivals, and (3) modularity trap, whereby when it is necessary to redesign the total product structure due to radical product innovations, the firm which selected open modular architecture and OI cannot respond because knowledge has dispersed among firms. OI is not necessarily the most efficient choice when these dilemmas or traps exist.

著者

Takeaki Wada

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.18, no.5, pp.195-208, 2019-10-15 (Released:2019-10-15)

参考文献数

20

被引用文献数

6

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Retail prices must be kept low in order to increase the diffusion of home video game hardware. In the 1980s and 1990s, when high-performance semiconductor prices were high, the performance of the hardware was limited. Owing to hardware restrictions, Japanese video game hardware developers had to improve their ability to increase the entertainment offered by their hardware. By the 2000s, home video game hardware that was the same spec as cutting-edge PC hardware came onto the market. As a result, consumers in the European and North American markets began to demand home video game software that could take advantage of high-performance hardware. This is when European and North American home video game developers began to flourish, as their experience with video game development on the PC meant that they had the ability to develop games that took advantage of high-level hardware functionality. At the same time, Japanese home video game developers were struggling in the global market, including North America, because the development organization and capabilities that they had built before 2000 acted as core rigidity.

著者

Takeaki WADA

出版者

グローバルビジネスリサーチセンター・東京大学MERC

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0160118a, (Released:2016-03-10)

参考文献数

24

被引用文献数

2 2

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Business management research in Japan categorizes resources into four categories: people, goods, money, and information. Among these, there has been a strong focus on information-based resources, which are company-specific. The notion that these resources are the basis of competitive advantage and inimitability has been considered the reason that Japanese companies exhibited a high level of international competitiveness in the 1980s. However, Japan’s international competitiveness has been declining since the 1990s. In fact, (a) information-based resources include not only information but also the capability to utilize that information, (b) resources with low inimitability are mixed in with information-based resources, and (c) information-based resources exhibit stickiness not to companies but to people and goods. Therefore, information-based resources do not automatically become sources of competitiveness. These facts were not comprehended until the 1980s, because Japanese companies were unconsciously able to accumulate information-based resources with high inimitability through Japanese-style management systems, like the lifetime commitment system. However, these preconditions for Japanese competitiveness were lost in the 1990s, resulting in an outflow of information-based resources embodied in workers and the decline of Japanese companies’ international competitiveness.

著者

Takeaki WADA

出版者

グローバルビジネスリサーチセンター・東京大学MERC

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.14, no.1, pp.53-66, 2015-02-15 (Released:2015-02-15)

参考文献数

14

被引用文献数

1 2

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Waste is generated as an unwanted byproduct of current business activities. Transforming waste products into a resource can enable firms to obtain raw material for free and reduce the cost of waste disposal. However, in general, firms are hesitant to accept the challenge of utilizing waste products because of organizational learning. Moreover, in the past, all challenges to transform waste products into a resource have failed. Thus, firms must unlearn the organizational learning that waste is “not a resource,” which inhibits their attempt to utilize waste products. Furthermore, in the beginning of development, there is no definite idea, and the process is far from the deliberate strategic process with clear objectives. The development process would be a deliberately emergent strategic process with only rough guidelines for attempting to transform waste into resources by any means. To achieve the objectives, firms have to patiently repeat trial and error, even if there are no short-term outcomes. This paper introduces the development process for N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) at the Yaizu Suisankagaku Industry (YSK) as an example of the successful commercialization of technology that utilizes waste. In the YSK example, (1) the spirit of mottainai that increases the value of the material to the maximum and becomes a significant driving force for unlearning, and (2) the leaning on the future principle in which one continues without losing hope even if there are no short-term results were the critical aspects that led to the successful transformation of waste into resources and is referred to as mottainai innovation.