著者

Kenichi Kuwashima

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.3, pp.95-108, 2018-06-15 (Released:2018-06-15)

参考文献数

27

被引用文献数

12

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From the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s, major institutional reform was undertaken in Japan to promote university–industry collaboration. The term “university–industry collaboration” appeared frequently in the media and became a fad. However, this did not last long, and it peaked in 2003. University–industry collaboration entered the spotlight again after 2010, when “open innovation” (Chesbrough, 2003) became popular in Japan. At that time, a new type of university–industry collaboration emerged. University–industry collaboration in Japan has traditionally taken the form of “small-scale, short-term, individual” contracts. In contrast, this new type of collaboration features “large-scale, long-term, comprehensive” contracts.

著者

Yufu Kuwashima

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.23-30, 2018-02-15 (Released:2018-02-15)

参考文献数

10

被引用文献数

2

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With cosmetics, one cannot determine at a glance exactly what product a person is using. This paper analyzes the impact of a consumer network on cosmetics, which are goods that are not conspicuous. Comments in word-of-mouth websites for cosmetics is used as a proxy variable for purchasing behavior, and the relationship between a consumer network and purchasing behavior in a social network is analyzed. In cosmetics, which are not conspicuous, this paper has confirmed that consumers exhibit the same purchasing behavior as when they are in a relationship with structural equivalence within a network and not just in relationships with cohesion.

著者

TAKAHASHI Nobuo

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, no.6, pp.299-313, 2014

被引用文献数

3

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The price of patents is limited by four sides of business management: (1) avoiding costs of the patent in question; (2) founders profit of inventors, such as researchers and engineers, to bear risks involved in business establishment; (3) factors supporting competitive advantage identified in the resource-based view of strategic management; and (4) negative impact of big money for the researchers invention. This tetragon of limitations bounds the price range of patents. This is illustrated by exemplifying the blue LED lawsuit case in Japan. This study presents the four side views on the differences between what companies pursue and what employee inventors pursue. However, these various differences make it possible to coexist and co-prosper between companies and inventors, otherwise they continue the tug-of-war forever on the one-dimensional monetary scale.

著者

Nobuo Takahashi

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.6, pp.263-276, 2019-12-15 (Released:2019-12-15)

参考文献数

13

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Japan’s prewar railroad business (Ministry of Transport) was transferred to a public corporation, Japanese National Railways (JNR), after World War II and eventually went bankrupt. This was due to a number of factors, including the decline in the position of railroads, ballooning personnel costs, and the existence of unprofitable local lines. However, the issue that directly caused the crash was the failure of the financing scheme that formed part of the company’s third long-term plan, which commenced in FY 1965. The company had not taken government subsidies or increased its borrowings from the Fiscal Investment and Loan Program (FILP), but instead went outside the FILP and issued large volumes of high-interest rate tokubetsu (special) bonds without a government guarantee, so that by FY 1967, interest and debt-related expenses totaled 101.2 billion yen, or about the same as the 104 billion yen raised by tokubetsu bonds. In other words, tokubetsu bonds were being issued to finance the payment of interest on railway bonds. As a result, the company went bankrupt in the first few years of its seven-year plan, which changed into a financial rehabilitation plan starting in FY 1969.

著者

Takeyasu Ichikohji Koji Nakano Masamichi Ogami

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, no.2, pp.47-60, 2022-04-15 (Released:2022-04-15)

参考文献数

26

被引用文献数

1

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This study examines how the performance of startups during the time period up to their initial public offering (IPO) is affected by the macro environment, a topic that has not been given much consideration to date. Taking the end of 2012 (the beginning of Abenomics), when Japan’s economic environment shifted to a hot market, as the transition point, we analyzed companies that did IPOs in terms of such variables as the target market, the attributes of the companies in the sample (type of entrepreneurship), and the date of their actual establishment. We found that for those companies operating in an economically favorable environment, the average time period from startup to IPO was relatively long. This could be because an economically favorable environment and improved business conditions spurred startups that had been implementing a wait-and-see attitude. We have some reservations about using “time to IPO” naively as a performance indicator, and caution should be exercised when using it.

著者

Nobuo Takahashi

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.21, no.2, pp.15-29, 2022-04-15 (Released:2022-04-15)

参考文献数

10

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The number of gas stations (GS) in Japan has halved in the last quarter-century, as price competition has made selling gasoline unprofitable. Further, the Japanese government has formulated a policy to end the sale of gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2035. Under these circumstances, Yamahiro, a GS company, (A) according to non-oil services, divided its GSs into three groups, namely, car inspection/testing, car washing/coating, and car rental, and further increased the specialization of each station by focusing on the services it offers; (B) not reduced the number of employees at the station despite operating self-service GSs and introduced the vehicle identification system and vehicle information management system to improve the profitability of its non-oil services by linking these systems; (C) utilized the vehicle data to create synergies between the car-rental business and used car sales business; and (D) increased the number of GSs by taking over unprofitable stations from wholesale dealers of oil products and retraining their entire workforces. As a result, the company expanded its business in Tokyo area, presently earning 40% of its profits from non-oil services, and won the Japan Quality Award (JQA).

著者

Nobuyuki INAMIZU Hidenori SATO Fumihiko IKUINE

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.1, pp.1-13, 2017-02-15 (Released:2017-02-15)

参考文献数

12

被引用文献数

2 3

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This study presents detailed sales actions through continuous unstructured interviews of practitioners. The results of the study demonstrate that there are five steps in sales: 1) preparation; 2) approaching customers; 3) interview; 4) presentation; and 5) closing. In addition, a questionnaire comprising 142 items for measuring these sales actions was developed based on these five steps, and the questionnaire was given to 107 individuals in eight companies. The results of the questionnaire revealed variances between top and bottom performers, with these variances in the steps prior to the interview, particularly in the preparation stage. This suggests the importance of preparation in sales. The sales skills scale of Rentz, Shepherd, Tashchian, Dabholkar, and Ladd (2002) measured aspects that have no direct relationship with sales and is problematic considering that it may fall into a tautology. The research approach taken herein, where the focus is on these sales actions and the five steps, may resolve the problems inherent to Rentz et al. (2002).

著者

SHINTAKU Junjiro ASABA Shigeru

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.13, no.1, pp.47-66, 2014

被引用文献数

1

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This paper first presents the following as obstacles to the generational switch of industry standards: (1) magnitude of installed base, (2) ample scope for technological progress based on existing standards, (3) limited applicability of accumulated technology to new standards, and (4) lack of investment capability. Next, we examine strategies to overcome such obstacles and migrate to new standards. Finally, we analyze the cooperation between a company that advocates new standards and one that produces complementary products when implementing those standards through the case study of the family console game industry. The results of analysis demonstrate that Nintendo has a traditional self-reliance strategy, whereas new entrant Sony has a collaborative one.

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

Senju Hanahara

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, no.2, pp.47-62, 2021-04-15 (Released:2021-04-15)

参考文献数

28

被引用文献数

3

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Interdepartmental collaboration is considered to be critical to innovation and efficiency. This paper differentiated industrial design (ID) and engineering design (ED), which differ in their nature and are handled by different departments, and reviews in the literature on the impact that interdepartmental collaboration among industrial designers and other areas involved in product development has on innovation and efficiency. We found that: (1) regarding innovation, interdepartmental collaboration has a positive effect on design innovation, and CE type interdepartmental collaboration has a positive effect on technology innovation. (2) Regarding efficiency, we found that the effect on the efficiency of the product development process was not consistent, and production efficiency was not looked into in prior research.

著者

Yusuke Tsukamoto

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0210115a, (Released:2021-02-11)

参考文献数

15

被引用文献数

10

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COVID-19 has accelerated the spread of telecommuting in Japan. In past studies regarding telecommuting, it was proved to be the result of i-deals, so it was discussed in the context of location flexibility i-deals (LFi-deals). The spread of COVID-19, however, has given rise to semi-compulsory telecommuting. Therefore, this study takes three groups: Group A, which continues to work at the office as before; Group B, which has started to telecommute (inexperienced telecommuters) so that telecommuting is regarded as semi-compulsory; and Group C, which has experience with telecommuting (experienced telecommuters) so that telecommuting is the result of making LFi-deals; and investigates the relationship that telecommuting has with the degree of self-determination (DSD) and productivity. Our analysis found that between Group B and Group C, which were both telecommuting, both DSD and productivity were significantly higher for Group C which has LFi-deals compared with Group B, for which telecommuting is semi-compulsory. However, DSD and productivity were higher for Group B than for Group A, so it is possible that starting to telecommute leads to more LFi-deals, a greater DSD, and higher productivity.

著者

Zhongqi Wang Youngkyo Suh

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0201201a, (Released:2021-01-17)

参考文献数

11

被引用文献数

1

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In the fast-growing Chinese heavy commercial vehicle market, it has been claimed that the rule is “manufacturers cannot survive unless they exceed an annual production scale of 10,000 units.” However, Japanese automakers GAC Hino Motors Company (GHMC) and Qingling Motors have been producing a profit in the Chinese market even though their production scale is less than 10,000 units. This has been due to the adaptation of a Japanese production system that can maintain a constant productivity standard even when dealing with small-scale production. However, the success of this Japanese production system has been due to the development of a method of fostering multiskilled workers in accordance with the actual circumstances in China.

著者

Sungwoo Byun

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0201111a, (Released:2020-12-11)

参考文献数

9

被引用文献数

2

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Only a small portion out of –200 steel-makers in the world can produce high-grade steel such as hot-dip galvanized steel sheets and directional electrical steel sheets. For equipment-related industry such as steel industry, technical knowledge is embodied in their equipment; thus, technology transfer and catch-up are somewhat easy. However, for high-grade steel production, steel-makers in emerging countries equipped with large-scale capital investment and state-of-the-art equipment capital investment continued to struggle. The reason for this is when a new process is added to the existing process and not just the added process, the operational parameters of all processes must be coordinated. Thus, when a number of processes increases, it leads to a massive number of combinations of operational parameters to be coordinated, thus requiring time to acquire knowledge patterns.

著者

Masayuki Hatta

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0200908a, (Released:2020-12-07)

参考文献数

11

被引用文献数

9

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Recently, online black markets and anonymous virtual currencies have become the subject of academic research, and we have gained a certain degree of knowledge about the dark web. However, as terms such as deep web and dark net, which have different meanings, have been used in similar contexts, discussions related to the dark web tend to be confusing. Therefore, in this paper, we discuss the differences between these concepts in an easy-to-understand manner, including their historical circumstances, and explain the technology known as onion routing used on the dark web.

著者

Mitsuhiro Fukuzawa

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0201012a, (Released:2020-11-11)

参考文献数

32

被引用文献数

2

---

In extant studies regarding value stream mapping (VSM) and cross-functional integration in Western journals, there is a deviation from the essence of lean production and flow management, which aim at overall optimization by focusing on the flow of the entire value chain as well as material and information flow, and empirical studies based on the actual state of material and information flow have not been sufficiently conducted. To proceed with the overall optimization of the material and information flow in the supply and value chain—with progress in globalization and digitalization as seen in recent Japanese manufacturing companies—it is necessary to return to basics to grasp the “actual state of the flow” by focusing on the entire material and information flow and to conduct empirical studies on factors contributing to these flows.

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

---

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

Kaoru Tsuda Hidenori Sato

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0200901a, (Released:2020-11-07)

参考文献数

16

被引用文献数

3

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Much research has been conducted on the role of the middle manager; however, most of the studies in research on this topic have focused on the middle manager's managerial work. However, upon surveying 2,183 managers at Japanese firms, we found that 87% of managers were actually engaged in nonmanagerial work. Furthermore, in extreme cases where middle managers responded that there was either not enough or too much non-managerial work, team performance was poor, while in cases where middle managers did an appropriate amount of nonmanagerial work, team performance was good.

著者

Daisuke Kosaka Hidenori Sato

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0200911a, (Released:2020-11-01)

参考文献数

25

被引用文献数

5

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Engagement as a concept is gaining attention in research and management practices. However, there are several types of engagement depending on whether the focus is on work and jobs or companies and organizations. In this paper, we demonstrate the following three points based on comparative analysis of the concepts of work engagement and employee engagement: (a) Both terms are used with the same frequency in academic journals in the field of management, but non-academic sources consistently use “employee engagement,” while medical and nursing articles use “work engagement.” (b) “Work engagement” may be used in this way because the term originated in research of burnout among nurses working in hospitals. (c) While much research does not adequately differentiate the two concepts, they should be treated as distinct concepts due to their distinct origins and the content they measure.

著者

Mitsuhiro Fukuzawa

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.19, no.5, pp.207-225, 2020-10-15 (Released:2020-10-15)

参考文献数

88

被引用文献数

2

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Studies of the value stream mapping (VSM) in Western journals report that leveraging VSM as a lean tool results in performance improvements. However, in these articles, VSM is functioning as a tool for partial optimization, attempting to identify and resolve bottlenecks in individual functions and divisions, primarily in production activities. For that reason, the greater the degree to which VSM underpins success, the more it deviates from the original essence of lean production and flow management, promoting overall optimization by focusing on the flows across the value chain, and potentially leading to poorer performance in the overall value flows up to the customer.

著者

Masami Abe

出版者

Global Business Research Center

雑誌

Annals of Business Administrative Science (ISSN:13474464)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.0200903a, (Released:2020-09-25)

参考文献数

14

被引用文献数

2

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It has been reported that the use of key phrases that all staff share a common understanding of is effective for integration inside an organization. At the Rakuwakai Otowa Hospital, however, integration failed due to the long-standing use of the terms “for the patient” and “patient first.” The staff had assigned different meanings depending on their profession to these terms based on which they had built successful track records for their profession. That experience acted as an inertia preventing changes in attitudes and behaviors and ended up accelerating individually optimal activities for each profession. It is not merely a matter of staff across units simply using the same key phrases; it is important to reduce the ambiguity of the key phrases through behavior.