Open Innovation Success Factors by ICT Use in Japanese Firms

The innovation by an independence principle is a limit in Japanese firm today. The expectation for the open innovation that positively uses outside resources on business has risen in Japanese firm. In open innovation, the strategy that expands sharing information and using the resource from supplier to customer for the innovation is needed. Therefore, the use of ICT is indispensable for the promotion of the open innovation. In this paper, we discussed how to utilize ICTs for open innovation activities in order to achieve more effective innovation outcomes in Japanese Medium-sized Enterprises. We conducted a mail survey for Japanese Medium-sized Enterprises in industries such as manufacturing, construction, and information and telecommunication in January 2010. Based on their replies, we applied the some logistic regression analyses. As results, the following points are clarified. Firms which achieve open innovation are enhancing the innovation by cooperating and exchanging information with the following entities: (i) affiliate companies which have the excellent technological knowhow; (ii) customers which locate inside or outside of the region; and (iii) firms in the same industry inside of the same region. The firms cultivate mutual trust for a long time and jointly develop frequently the new products and services. And they have frequently exchanged the customer needs, new release information of the rival companies and a high-tech trend with each other. They use CTI and SCM to use information and knowledge for designing and developing a new product and service. Moreover, it can be confirmed that the firm which top management is familiar with ICT and exercises the leadership for ICT use. In addition, the firm not only introduced ICT but also reformed organizational structures, systems, and company's rules at the same time. These analysis results will provide useful suggestions for SMEs to practice open innovation in the future. --Open Innovation,ICT,Japanese firms

Japan's Patent System and Business Innovation: Reassessing Pro-patent Policies

TSince current Japanese patent law was enacted in 1959, it has been revised several times, mainly for the purpose of international harmonization. Recently the Japanese government stresses the importance of pro-patent policies, i.e., strengthening intellectual property right in order to stimulate business innovation and to regain international competitiveness. This paper assesses the impact of series of revisions of Japanese patent system on firm's innovation activities, by using statistical data, firm level survey data and information from interviews for IP managers in IT and pharmaceutical firms. It is found that increases in patent application in the late 1990's are attributed to a surge of IT patents, as well as pharmaceutical ones. For IT and pharmaceuticals, technology fields covered by patent protection have been gradually expanded, such as in areas of software and biotechnology. This policy change may contribute to increase in patent application. However, it is difficult to separate this system factor from other factors such as expansion of technological opportunity. Although the impact of recent pro-patent policies on firm's innovation is not so clear, it is clear that IP section inside firm becomes to play more active role in firm's innovation strategy formulation, particularly in pharmaceutical firms. Tremendous technology opportunities in IT and biotech push a firm to rely on external knowledge pools by licensing activities, and it becomes important to coordinate in-house R&D with licensing activities to tap on external technology sources. In this context, IP section involves heavily in R&D and product development process inside firm. In addition, it is found that large firms in IT and pharmaceutical industry, focuses on US patent system, which moves relatively quickly for new technology field patenting, and pay less attention to Japanese one.

Innovative Tokyo

This paper compares and contrasts Tokyo's innovation structure with the industrial districts model and the international hub model in the literature on urban and regional development. The Tokyo model embraces and yet transcends both industrial districts and international hub models. The paper details key elements making up the Tokyo model-organizational knowledge creation, integral and co-location systems of corporate R&D and new product development, test markets, industrial districts and clusters, participative consumer culture, continuous learning from abroad, local government policies, the national system of innovation, and the historical genesis of Tokyo in Japan's political economy. The paper finds that the Tokyo model of innovation will continue to evolve with the changing external environment, but fundamentally retains its main characteristics. The lessons from the Tokyo model is that openness, a diversified industrial base, the continuing development of new industries, and an emphasis on innovation, all contribute to the dynamism of a major metropolitan region.Labor Policies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Health Promotion,ICT Policy and Strategies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,ICT Policy and Strategies,Environmental Economics&Policies,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Innovation

The impact of valuation rules for intangible assets in Japanese and German accounts of listed companies : [Version April 2003]

Intangible assets as goodwill, licenses, research and development or customer relations become in high technology and service orientated economies more and more important. But comparing the book values of listed companies and their market capitalization the financial reports seems to fail the information needs of market participants regarding the estimate of the proper firm value. Moreover, with the introduction of Anglo-American accounting systems in Europe and Asia we can observe even in the accounts of companies sited in the same jurisdiction diverging accounting practices for intangible assets caused by different accounting standards. To assess the relevance of intangible assets in Japanese and German accounts of listed companies we therefore measure certain balance sheet and profit and loss relations according to goodwill and self-developed software. We compare and analyze valuation rules for goodwill and software costs according to German GAAP, Japanese GAAP, US GAAP and IAS to determine the possible impact of diverging rules in the comparability of the accounts. Our results show that the comparability of the accounts is impaired because of different accounting practices. The recognition and valuation of goodwill and self-developed software varies significantly according to the accounting regime applied. However, for the recognition of self-developed software, the effect on the average impact on asset coefficients or profit is not that high. Moreover, an industry bias can only be found for the financial industry. In contrast, for goodwill accounting we found major differences especially between German and Japanese Blue Chips. The introduction of the new goodwill impairment only approach and the prohibition of the pooling method may have a major impact especially for Japanese companies’ accounts

The History of the iPad

The purpose of this paper is to review the history of the iPad and its influence over contemporary computing. Although the iPad is relatively new, the tablet computer is having a long and lasting affect on how we communicate. With this essay, I attempt to review the technologies that emerged and converged to create the tablet computer. Of course, Apple and its iPad are at the center of this new computing movement

How management innovation happens

Management innovation — that is, the implementation of new management practices, processes and structures that represent a significant departure from current norms — has over time dramatically transformed the way many functions and activities work in organizations. Many of the practices, processes and structures that we see in modern business organizations were developed during the last 150 years by the creative efforts of management innovators. Those innovators have included well-known names like Alfred P. Sloan and Frederick Taylor, as well as numerous other unheralded individuals and small groups of people who all sought to improve the internal workings of organizations by trying something new

VLSI Revisited - Revival in Japan

This paper describes the abundance of semiconductor consortia that have come into existence in Japan since the mid-1990s. They clearly reflect the ambition of the government - through its reorganized ministry METI and company initiatives - to regain some of the industrial and technological leadership that Japan has lost. The consortia landscape is very different in Japan compared with EU and the US. Outside Japan the universities play a much bigger and very important role. In Europe there has emerged close collaboration, among national government agencies, companies and the EU Commission in supporting the IT sector with considerable attention to semiconductor technologies. Another major difference, and possibly the most important one, is the fact that US and EU consortia include and mix partners from different areas of the semiconductor landscape including wafer makers, material suppliers, equipment producers and integrated device makers.semiconductors, Hitachi, Sony, Toshiba, Elpida, Renesas, Sematech, VLSI, JESSI, MEDEA, ASPLA, MIRAI, innovation system