Yaichi Aoshima

Transfer of System Knowledge Across Generations in New Product Development: Empirical Observations from Japanese Automobile Development

The objective of this article is to explore effective ways of retaining knowledge involved in new product development. Although human-based mechanisms, such as the direct transfer of project members, more effectively convey knowledge required in design integration at the higher level of product systems, the article shows that standardized mechanisms are more appropriate for retention of lower-component knowledge. However, it is also argued that product architecture affects these relationships through its impact on a locus of design change in a product system. Such argument is partially tested in the context of the Japanese automobile industry.

Reasons for Innovation: Legitimizing Resource Mobilization for Innovation in the Case of Okochi Memorial Prize Winners

This paper addresses reasons for innovation. Innovation requires resources to transform new ideas into products/services to be sold in the market and diffused in society. Yet in the earlier stage of innovation process uncertainty always prevails both technologically and economically. There is no objective consensus that the new idea will succeed in the end. It is thus necessary for those people who want to realize the innovation to show others both inside and outside the firm legitimate reasons for mobilizing their precious resources, including people, materials, facilities, and money, throughout the process toward commercialization. How do firms legitimize the resource mobilization for innovation? Drawing on 18 case studies on Okochi Memorial Prize winners, which our joint research project has carried out over last five years, and building upon the existing literature on internal corporate venturing, new ventures, and other related issues, this paper examines the innovation process of established Japanese firms from idea generation to commercialization with a primary focus on the process by which resource mobilization was legitimized.

Redefining Innovation as System Re-Definition

Ironically, our understandings of innovation appear to become increasingly vague, as “innovation” has been one of the most powerful buzz words. Currently, the concept of innovation is likely to be misunderstood just as “something new” or “something good”. Since Schumpeter first defined innovation as new combination, there has been substantial accumulation of innovation research. Despite the rich literature on innovation, not only Schumpeter but also many followers did not pay much attention into the core of the definition of innovation. We will go back to the basics of innovation research in order to reexamine the essence of innovation, and to derive theoretical and practical implications for managing innovation in modern competitive environment. Redefining innovation as “system redefinition”, we will present an analytical framework of innovation to explore its discontinuous nature of new combination.

Effects of government funding on R&D performance leading to commercialisation

This paper draws on data obtained from a questionnaire survey conducted for the 242 private R&D projects supported by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organisation), Japan’s public management organisation promoting R&D, to explore how dependence on government support affects processes of private R&D projects and, in turn, the performance and commercialisation of developed technologies. Our analyses show that projects receiving more than a half of their entire R&D expenditures from NEDO tend to be isolated from in-house departments. Such isolation, derived mainly from the projects’ unique positions in ‘double dependence’ structures, negatively affects project performance, especially those related to commercialisation, in two ways. First, high dependence on government resources prevents project members from interacting with people outside the project within the company. This inhibits project members from effectively leveraging internal resources –both technological and human– to overcome technological problems. Secondly, such high dependence weakens internal controls over project activities. This causes delayed development of marketable technologies and makes it difficult for projects to achieve justification for further investment required for commercialisation. Our findings suggest that for successful R&D leading to commercialisation, both companies and public funding agencies should encourage projects to maintain close relationships with other internal departments.

Mobilizing scarce resource through social networks: Exploring mechanism that accelerated the growth of the Chinese PV industry

This paper explores how the Chinese photovoltaic (PV) industry had grown extremely fast from the middle of 2000s, and successfully dominated the world PV product market, by conducting a detailed field study on the industry cluster of Wuxi area in Jiangsu Province, which involves interviews to more than 42 persons and the questionnaire survey. Whereas prior research has tended to emphasize roles of the central government and entrepreneurial activities of major PV firms, we rather focus on processes that enabled PV firms, including small and medium ones, to get access to the resources such as technology, management know-how, and skilled labors, which were critical for their growth but rare in China. Our study particularly indicates that social networks based on informal and personal relations had taken very important roles for Chinese PV firms to overcome problems derived from scarcity of such critical resources. But it also implies that this process has induced homogeneity of firms and driven intense price competition in the market. The study sheds a light on both positive and negative roles of socially-embedded relations on the industrial growth in developing countries.

The importance of technology integration capabilities: evaluating the impact of 3D technologies on product development performance in Japan and China

New multi-functional technologies often require technology integration capabilities that integrate new technologies into their organizational processes and introduce internal changes to ensure an effective fit with the new technology. This paper endeavours to examine the impact of 3D technologies such as 3D CAD on product development performance by means of a questionnaire survey. The results indicate that Japanese companies improved the performance as a result of the process reformations leveraged by the utilization of 3D technologies; however, no significant relationships were observed among the utilization of 3D technologies, process reformations, and total performance improvements for the Chinese companies surveyed.