Safety technologies and people/organizations activities for the next generation : Safety management and safety information sharing system for supporting industrial safety

Ensuring a sustainable safety management system is a global issue and a social demand. In recent years, Risk Based Safety Management (RBSM) has become mainstream as a comprehensive management system for handling process safety in Oil & Gas industries. Nowadays, UK Safety Case concept was well established, and this concept is widely applied in various industries. Through this process, logical safety assurance approach was developed and introduced, named CAE (Claims, Arguments, and Evidences) . In Japan, Oil & Gas industry operators keen to apply Risk Based Process Safety Management which is suggested by AIChE CCPS. However, actual implementation of RBPS is not straightforward since detailed approach is not well defined yet. The UK Nuclear Industry\u27s Safety Case approach may be able to assist implementing Risk Based Process Safety Management System in the Japanese O&G industry. Furthermore, it has been developing work support and information sharing technologies in the industrial field by introducing DX (Digital Transformation) technology. This paper introduces topics to improve industrial safety using these two approaches, and discusses safety technologies and people / organizations that will support the next generation of plants

From knowledge dependence to knowledge creation: Industrial growth and the technological advance of the Japanese electronics industry

The thrust of the argument put forward in this paper is that the postwar technological advance of the Japanese electronics industry was in essence a product not a primary cause of industrial growth. We demonstrate that the industry's surge forward resulted from the interaction of a unique combination of political, economic and cultural forces. Business leaders took full advantage by investing on a massive scale in physical, organizational, human and technological resources. It was success in the marketplace and strong cash flows that allowed Japanese firms to import technology on a large scale, invest in scientists and engineers, and progressively develop world class technological capabilities. In establishing themselves as global players, Japanese electronics firms moved over the years from a position of knowledge dependence to one of knowledge creation. We explore how this transformation was achieved and how they learned to control and exploit knowledge creating systems and processes. In particular, we establish the multi-faceted context and complex set of relationships that have conditioned strategic decision making and the creation of technological capabilities

Expanding to outward foreign direct investment or not? A multi-dimensional analysis of entry mode transformation of Chinese private exporting firms

This research examines the factors determining whether or not exporting firms expand to outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) as part of their internationalisation strategy, using a recent survey of Chinese private-owned enterprises. We carry out a multi-dimensional analysis to investigate the impact of firm productivity, internal resources and the external environment on OFDI decisions, including both the decision to undertake OFDI and the volume of OFDI flows. It is found that productivity, technology-based capability, export experience, industry entry barriers, subnational institutions and intermediary institutional support affect firms’ OFDI decisions. The findings have important policy and managerial implications

Japan's silver market: creating a new industry under uncertainty

It has often been asked whether today´s Japan will be able to move into new and promising industries, or whether it is locked into an innovation system with an inherent inability to give birth to new industries. One argument reasons that the thick institutional complementarities among labour, innovation, and finance among its enterprises and the public sector favour industrial development in sectors of intermediate uncertainty, while it is difficult to move into areas of major uncertainty. In this paper, we present the case of the silver industry or, somewhat more prosaically, the 60+ or even 50+ industry, for which most would agree that Japan has indeed become a lead market and lead producer on the global market. For an institutional economist, the case of the silver industry is particularly interesting, because Japan´s success is based on the cooperation of existing actors, the enterprise and public sector in particular, which helped overcome the information uncertainties and asymmetries involved in the new market by relying on several established mechanisms developed well before. In that sense, Japan´s silver industry presents a case of of what we propose to call successful institutional path activation with the effect of an innovative market creation, instead of the problematic lockin effects that are usually associated with the term path dependence

The Theory of Transformation Pressure - a New Perspective on Growth and Economic Policy

The theory of transformation pressure offers a uniquely Swedish perspective on the "productivity slowdown" of the 1970s and 1980s. One example of this theory can be found in an influential argument from the early 1990s which states that devaluations of the Swedish currency lessened the external pressure on manufacturing and led to a delay in structural change and rationalisations. The theory generalises the idea that productivity growth in firms is stimulated by intense competition, cost pressures and low or qualified demand. The main challenge faced by such a theory is to explain why it seems that an immediate threat is needed to get a productive response from firms. The theory presented here assumes either genuine uncertainty, irrational behaviour or that firms become more creative when they are put under real pressure. Productivity growth is not always promoted by tight external circumstances. Growth may be maximised if pressure in each period is moderate or if periods with strong pressure are followed by periods of financial and technical consolidation.Transformation Pressure; Competition; X-inefficiencies; Innovations; Productivity; Growth; Rationality; Uncertainty; R&D Investments

Corporate Governance, Innovative Enterprise, and Economic Development

corporate governance, innovative enterprise, economic development

University-local industry linkages : the case of Tohoku University in the Sendai area of Japan

This paper focuses on Tohoku University in Sendai in the nonmetropolitan area of Japan. Both a long historical and comparative perspective and a spacial perspective are essential to discuss the relevance of university-local industry linkages to local regional economic development. The conjunction of these linkages and economic development has been affected by two evolutionary processes: institutional configurations and territorial dynamics in the national innovation system. In addition, university-local industry linkages have been complicated by top-down regionalization and bottom-up regionalism.Tertiary Education,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Technology Industry,Rural Development Knowledge&Information Systems