Fostering Global Innovation: Strategies for Japanese Entrepreneurs and Business Ecosystems

This paper explores strategies for fostering global innovation among Japanese entrepreneurs by addressing key challenges within Japan's entrepreneurial environment. The prolonged economic stagnation, commonly referred to as the "Lost Decades," has contributed to a low level of entrepreneurial activity and innovation. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data from three case studies of Japanese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating overseas. The findings highlight the importance of entrepreneurial education, the formation of regional industrial clusters, and the utilization of both domestic and international networks to enhance global competitiveness. The role of aspiration, defined as ambitions related to growth, international expansion, and social value creation, is identified as a critical factor in achieving innovation. Policy recommendations are provided to support the development of a sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem in Japan, emphasizing government support, cross-border collaboration, and knowledge sharing to overcome structural barriers and promote a culture that encourages entrepreneurial endeavors

Urban Theo-topias: Religious Claims to Space and the Language of Administrative Rationality in the New City of Gurugram, India

The city of Gurugram, the administrative headquarters of a district of the same name, is located in the state of Haryana. Gurugram adjoins the southern borders of Delhi and has been the site of intense urban development over the past two decades. Rapid urbanisation has attracted a variety of workers from different parts of the country. Unlike Hindus, however, the majority of the Muslim migrants to the city tend to be poor and unskilled. In recent times, there has been a great deal of public debate and conflict over Muslims offering namaaz (prayer) at different public places – such as streets and parks – in the city. Both official and private pronouncements regarding public namaaz is couched in the language of urban administrative rationality: viz., the ‘proper’ uses of public land and religious practice as a possible source of permanent illegal occupation of public land.This article explores the manner in which specific discourses of planning and administration in Gurugram – despite their ‘neutral’ vocabulary – become aligned to political and cultural agendas of urban ‘theo-topias’, viz., the processes of producing religion-specific spaces. It also outlines relationships between class, religious identity, the state and private capital that produce new ideas of ‘the people’

'Leave no one behind': A power-capabilities-energy justice perspective on energy transition in remote rural communities in Cambodia

Over the past two decades electricity access in Cambodia has increased considerably. The Electricity Authority of Cambodia has announced that the country expanded energy access from 34% in 2010 to 98% by mid-2022, but that 245 villages still lack access to the national distribution network due to their remoteness. For some of these villages, off-grid renewable energy systems have played a significant role in providing electricity access. However, connecting villages to the grid or providing them with off-grid renewable energy is not enough to overcome energy poverty and achieve people’s well-being. In this paper we apply a power-capabilities-energy justice framework to analyse social justice concerning renewable energy and energy poverty in remote communities. Based on primary data collected through interviews and focus group discussions, and using a social network analysis (SNA) we approach capabilities and energy poverty in Cambodia as a relational process and we provide for the first time a through picture of social and power relations in the Cambodian energy sector. Our study finds that communities and vulnerable groups such as female-headed households, located in remote rural areas are suffering distributional energy injustice in that they have access to a limited range of energy services to fulfil basic capabilities, such as being in good health, being educated and socially connected. We also find that distributional energy injustice is closely connected to power relations and relationality aspects of the Cambodian energy sector, as well as a lack of recognition of different vulnerabilities in energy policies