Yuko Aoyama

Hardware gimmick or cultural innovation? Technological, cultural, and social foundations of the Japanese video game industry

This paper examines the role of creative resources in the emergence of the Japanese video game industry. We argue that creative resources nurtured by popular cartoons and animation sector, combined with technological knowledge accumulated in the consumer electronics industry, facilitated the emergence of successful video game industry in Japan. First we trace the development of the industry from its origin to the rise of platform developers and software publishers. Then, knowledge and creative foundations that influenced the developmental trajectory of this industry are analyzed, with links to consumer electronics and in regards to cartoons and animation industry.

From Software Services to R&D Services: Local Entrepreneurship in the Software Industry in Bangalore, India

In this paper we analyze the emergence of R&D services in Bangalore, India, by focusing on the process of technological upgrading in the Indian software industry. The development trajectory of the Indian software industry and the upgrading it has experienced, from providing low-skill software services to providing high-skill R&D services, are examined using evidence from interviews with Indian firms in Bangalore. Whereas most research on the Indian software industry thus far has emphasized the role of the state and multinational corporations, in this paper we argue that active local entrepreneurship is playing an increasingly important role in technological upgrading and in the shift from low-skill to high-skill services in Bangalore. These shifts are being facilitated by growing institutional thickness, as evidenced by the accumulation of local expertise, increasing local entrepreneurship addressing specific market niches, and the development of a local technical community.

NEW DIGITAL GEOGRAPHIES: INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION, AND PLACE

This chapter provides an overview of contemporary trends relevant to the development of geographies based on new digital technologies such as the Internet and mobile phones. Visions of utopian and ubiquitous information superhighways and placeless commerce are clearly passe, yet privileged individuals and places are ever more embedded in these new digital geographies while private and state entities are increasingly embedding these digital geographies in all of us. First is a discussion of the centrality of geographical metaphors to the way in which we imagine and visualize the new digital geographies. Then the example of the commercial Internet (e-commerce) is used to demonstrate the continued central role of place in new digital geography both in terms of where activities cluster and how they vary over space. The transformation of digital connections from fixed (i.e., wired) to untethered (i.e., wireless) connections is explored as to its significance in the way we interact with information and the built environment. Finally is an examination of the troubling issue of the long data shadows cast by all individuals as they negotiate their own digital geographies vis-a-vis larger state and private entities.

Sociospatial Dimensions of Technology Adoption: Recent M-Commerce and E-Commerce Developments

Despite globalization and alleged technological convergence, there remains great variation in the form, manner, and speed of technological adoption and adaptation across societies. In this paper I examine conceptual problems of the information society by considering the differential impacts of technology on production and consumption, and analyzing how sociospatial factors, such as urban form, consumer preference, and cultural attributes shape the patterns of technological adoption in the information age. Examples are drawn from the United States and Japan, to showcase distinctive trajectories of technological adoption by their respective consumers. In particular, practices in Japans retail sector in participating E-commerce, and the present popularity of wireless web via cellular telephone access are examined to understand better the process of technological progress and consumption.

Organizational Dynamics of the U.S. Logistics Industry: An Economic Geography Perspective*

Abstract Although the logistics industry provides critical services to all sectors of the economy, few studies exist in economic geography that examine and explain the organizational dynamics of this industry. This article highlights the significance of the logistics industry in contemporary industrialization and argues that an enriched understanding of the interaction between technology and space can be achieved by examining the evolution of an industry that plays a central role in the contemporary economy. We focus on dimensions that are identified as particularly important: organizational, geographic, and risk and security.

Trust, Transactions, and Information Technologies in the U.S. Logistics Industry

Abstract How does information technology (IT) alter the organizational dynamics in an industry? In this article, we examine changes in competition and interfirm relations in the U.S. logistics industry, particularly whether “trust-base” interfirm relationships are being substituted by “competition-base” relationships and the rationale for outsourcing. We also examine how new IT tools and outsourcing interact and how logistics contracts, the size of firms, and knowledge lead to integration or disintegration within the industry. The results of our research demonstrate that while the use of IT tools is widespread, traditional trust-based relationships exhibit a considerable resilience in the logistics industry. The industry is also undergoing a complex process of restructuring in response to technological change, on the one hand, and the persistence of geographic and functional specialization, on the other hand. The industry’s focus on the delivery of high-quality services, coupled with excess capacity in the industry in the past few years, has contributed to these contradictory trends. As a result, elimination of the middleman has not been as widely observed as expected.

STRUCTURAL FOUNDATIONS FOR E-COMMERCE ADOPTION: A COMPARATIVE ORGANIZATION OF RETAIL TRADE BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES

Why do two societies, both technologically advanced, exhibit a divergent path in adopting electronic commerce (e-commerce)? This paper compares the historical development of retail trade in Japan and the United States, with a specific focus on the partnership between brick-and-mortar and nonstore retailing. The way in which a society adopts technologies is in part historically determined, and business-to-consumer (B-to-C) transactions in particular are strongly influenced by the characteristics and structure of retail trade. While the strategies adopted by U.S. retailers is to develop e-commerce to sell products that are available at brick-and-mortar stores via online, the strategy adopted by Japanese convenience stores show that Japanese retailers are selling products available online at brick-and-mortar stores. Although the speed of e-commerce diffusion is typically attributed to the cost of access, a historical analysis of the retail sector reveals variations in institutional foundations for retail business practices, and such differences can shape the development trajectory of the commercial activities of the real and virtual worlds. [Key words: e-commerce, retail trade, Japan, United States.]

Networks, Keiretsu, and Locations of the Japanese Electronics Industry in Asia

It has been assumed that industrial networks, particularly of keiretsu-based organizations, play the major role in dictating the formation of industrial agglomerations for Japanese investment in overseas locations. In this paper, I examine whether currently available establishment data on Japanese firms in Asia confirm this tendency for the electronics industry. The data show that actual reliance on keiretsu networks in Asia is relatively low, and keiretsu relationships are more likely to reflect a strong relationship at the global level, rather than relationships with suppliers within host countries. This result poses questions on the assumptions of network-based industrialization affecting locations of foreign direct investment.

Policy Interventions for Industrial Network Formation: Contrasting Historical Underpinnings of the Small Business Policy in Japan and the United States

This article examines the role of policies in promoting inter-firm networks, by contrasting policy frameworks for small businesses in Japan and the United States. While the policies in two countries share similarities in many respects, different historical underpinnings have led small business policies to play different roles in economies of Japan and the United States. This paper analyzes how Japans small business policy came to encourage inter-firm collaborations over the course of its history, while policies in the United States have not had explicit orientation toward the development of inter-firm networks until the 1990s.

Area development and policy: an agenda for the 21st century

ABSTRACT A series of significant recent trends in world development involve transformations taking place at multiple geographical scales. These transformations suggest that there are multiple pathways to development, that these pathways derive from the articulation and interdependence of governance structures/capacity and development models, and that these trends will lead to a radical reshaping of the international economic and political order. Our world remains a world of diverse civilizations whose national, regional urban, rural and local development trajectories require detailed investigation and research from a range of perspectives, including those of emerging economies themselves. International communication and exchange, deriving from these multiple experiences will contribute to inclusive cooperation and mutual learning.