Dynamics of Knowledge, Corporate Systems and Innovation

357 Pages·2010·3.11 MB·English

by  Hiroyuki Itami (auth.)

Dynamics of Knowledge, Corporate Systems
and Innovation

· ·
Hiroyuki Itami Ken Kusunoki
·
Tsuyoshi Numagami Akira Takeishi
Editors
Dynamics of Knowledge,
Corporate Systems
and Innovation
123
Editors
Prof.HiroyukiItami Prof.KenKusunoki
TokyoUniversityofScience HitotsubashiUniversity
GraduateSchoolofManagement GraduateSchoolofInternational
ofScience&Technology CorporateStrategy(ICS)
2-11-3Fujimi 2-1-2Hitotsubashi
Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo
102-8152Japan 101-8439Japan
[email protected] [email protected]
Prof.TsuyoshiNumagami Prof.AkiraTakeishi
HitotsubashiUniversity KyotoUniversity
GraduateSchoolofCommerce GraduateSchoolofEconomics
andManagement Yoshida-Honmachi
2-1Naka Sakyo-ku,Kyoto
Kunitachi,Tokyo 606-8501Japan
186-8601Japan [email protected]
[email protected]
ISBN978-3-642-04479-3 e-ISBN978-3-642-04480-9
DOI10.1007/978-3-642-04480-9
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Preface
Snowfellquietlythenightbeforeandthemorningsunwasshiningbrightlyunder
theblueskythenextday.Lookingouttothesnow-whitegardenfromalargewin-
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 oftheJapanese translationofhisfamous book appeared inthemajor
economicjournalinJapan.Everyonecongratulatedhimforthecoincidenceandit
wassuchahappyendingtothethree-dayconference.
Theatmosphereoftheconference,outofwhichthisbookgrew,wasverystim-
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-SungChowastryingtoexpandevenmorethealreadyverybroadconceptual
frameworkthatHiroItamipresented.Forsure,thedynamicsofknowledgecreation
was at work in the conference room and the dining hall. It is a pity that there is
no way to reincarnate such spirit in print. One has to be the “person on the spot”
to feel the air. Still we will try to present the fruits of that discussion in the form
of this book, with all the papers revised completely by each author to reflect the
suggestionsraisedintheconference.
The theme of our conference was exactly the title of this book: Dynamics of
knowledge, corporate system and innovation. Knowledge is created and accumu-
latedinthecorporatesystem,andthecorporatesystemwouldutilizetheknowledge
and introduce innovation to the market and the society. The corporate organiza-
tiongeneratesnewknowledgethroughtheirin-houseR&Dactivities.Thecorporate
organization introduces new products and services into the market by combining
its own new knowledge and the knowledge generated by the others, like universi-
ties.Thus,ifwedefineinnovation as“thedramaticchanges ofpeople’ssociallife
throughtheintroductionofnewproductsorservices”,theleadingroleofinnovation
isplayedbythecorporateorganizationbothinknowledgecreationandutilization.
v
vi Preface
In other words, the corporate system is the essential linking pin between the
knowledgeandtheinnovation,andinteractivedynamicsbetweenknowledge,corpo-
ratesystem,andinnovationareextremelyimportant.Large-scaleindustrialorsocial
improvementintheformofinnovationcanmaterializeonlywhentheseinteractive
dynamicsareactivatedandfunctionwell.
The theme of the conference was also the theme of the twenty first century
Center of Excellence (COE) program at Hitotsubashi University, funded by the
Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of the Japanese Government.
This conference was a part of international activities of this COE program. We
were quite fortunate to have many distinguished members of the international
academic community in this filed, including Bruce Kogut (Columbia University)
and Sid Winter (University of Pennsylvania) who presented their papers to the
conference. The other paper presenters are the authors of the chapters of this vol-
ume. Alsopresent at the conference as the discussants were: ChristinaAhmadjian
(Hitotsubashi University); Sea-Jin Chang (Korea University); Jin Chen (Zhejiang
University); Dong-Sung Cho (Seoul National University); Takahiro Fujimoto
(University of Tokyo); Toshiaki Ikoma (Japan Science and Technology Agency);
HideshiItoh(HitotsubashiUniversity);KazushiKuse(IBMJapan);IkujiroNonaka
(Hitotsubashi University); and Jonathan West (Australian Innovation Research
Centre)(organizationsareasofparticipation).Weappreciatetheirparticipationvery
deeply.
Inadditiontothosepaperspresentedanddiscussedattheconference,thisvolume
includes four more chapters by Kunio Ito and Tetsuyuki Kagaya, Ken Kusunoki
andSatoshiAkutsu,SadaoNagaoka,andYoshitakaSuzuki.Theirpaperswerenot
presented at the conference but among valuable research outcomes from our COE
program.
To make this conference possible and edit this volume, tireless efforts by the
staffmembersoftheHitotsubashiUniversityCenterforJapaneseBusinessStudies
(HJBS) of Hitotsubashi University (a secretariat of our COE program) are indis-
pensable.WearegratefultoKoichiroKodama,MamiTakahashi,RieHoshinoand
YukariMinekagefortheirpricelesscontributionbothtothisbookandtotheHJBS
activitiesingeneral.
Innovation is the engine of the economic progress. It is becoming increasingly
moreimportant.Tounderstandandperhapsguideinnovationactivitiesinthesoci-
ety, our deeper insight into the dynamics of knowledge, corporate system and
innovationiscrucial.Wehopethisbookisasmallstepforwardinthatdirection.
Tokyo,January,2010 H.Itami
Contents
PartI Perspectives
1 Organization Accumulates and Market
Utilizes: A Framework of Knowledge-Corporate
System-InnovationDynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
HiroyukiItami
2 BoundariesofInnovationandSocialConsensusBuilding:
ChallengesforJapaneseFirms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
AkiraTakeishiandTsuyoshiNumagami
3 RedefiningInnovationasSystemRe-Definition . . . . . . . . . . . 43
KenKusunokiandYaichiAoshima
4 Knowledge,Information,Rules,andStructures . . . . . . . . . . . 77
BruceKogut
5 TheReplicationPerspectiveonProductiveKnowledge . . . . . . . 95
SidneyG.Winter
PartII Issues
6 OrganizationalDeadweightandtheInternalFunctioningof
JapaneseFirms:AnExplorativeAnalysisofOrganizational
Dysfunction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
ToshihikoKato,MasaruKarube,andTsuyoshiNumagami
7 Reasons for Innovation: Legitimizing Resource
MobilizationforInnovationintheCasesoftheOkochi
MemorialPrizeWinners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165
AkiraTakeishi,YaichiAoshima,andMasaruKarube
8 CategoryInnovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
KenKusunokiandSatoshiAkutsu
vii
viii Contents
9 Moore’s Law Increasing Complexity, and the Limits
ofOrganization:TheModernSignificanceofJapanese
Chipmakers’CommodityDRAMBusiness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
HiroyukiChumaandNorikazuHashimoto
10 M&AsandCorporatePerformanceinJapan:Transferring
vs.SharingofControlRight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
SadaoNagaoka
11 InternationalComparisonofProfitabilityDispersion . . . . . . . . 267
MakotoNakano
12 InternationalComparisonofIntangibleAssets’Disclosure
andInvestmentBehavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
KunioItoandTetsuyukiKagaya
13 JapaneseCompanyinthePost-JapaneseSystem:Hoya
1985–1996 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
YoshitakaSuzuki
14 An Entrepreneurial Approach to Service Innovations:
LeadingChangingLifestylesinJapan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
YoshinoriFujikawaandCarlKay
Contributors
SatoshiAkutsu GraduateSchoolofInternationalCorporateStrategy,
HitotsubashiUniversity,Tokyo,Japan
YaichiAoshima InstituteofInnovationResearch,HitotsubashiUniversity,Tokyo,
Japan
HiroyukiChuma InstituteofInnovationResearch,HitotsubashiUniversity,
Tokyo,Japan
YoshinoriFujikawa GraduateSchoolofInternationalCorporateStrategy,
HitotsubashiUniversity,Tokyo,Japan
NorikazuHashimoto HitachiCentralResearchLaboratory,Tokyo,Japan
HiroyukiItami GraduateSchoolofManagementofScienceandTechnology,
TokyoUniversityofScience;HitotsubashiUniversity,Tokyo,Japan
KunioIto HitotsubashiUniversityGraduateSchoolofCommerceand
Management,Tokyo,Japan
TetsuyukiKagaya HitotsubashiUniversityGraduateSchoolofCommerceand
Management,Tokyo,Japan
MasaruKarube InstituteofInnovationResearch,HitotsubashiUniversity,Tokyo,
Japan
ToshihikoKato GraduateSchoolofCommerceandManagement,Hitotsubashi
University,Tokyo,Japan
CarlKay GraduateSchoolofInternationalCorporateStrategy,Hitotsubashi
University,Tokyo,Japan
BruceKogut ColumbiaBusinessSchool,ColumbiaUniversity,NewYork,NY,
USA
KenKusunoki GraduateSchoolofInternationalCorporateStrategy,Hitotsubashi
University,Tokyo,Japan
ix