Traditionally, innovation has been considered difficult to manage, as it occurs through contingent discoveries and inventions. For effective innovation management, it is necessary to determine what provides new value to customers and achieve this new value efficiently, while solving the technical problems. This book explores how innovation management for industrial revitalization and activation are conducted in Japanese companies. 'Innovation' has diverse definitions, but the editors of this book have adopted the one proposed by J A Schumpeter. The features of innovation management in Japanese companies are considered systematically in the book. Positive analyses using questionnaires and innovation management strategy in individual industries and companies is also explored in detail.

What Makes this Book Unique? No crystal ball is required to safely predict, that in the future – even more than in the past – mastered innovativeness will be a primary criterion distinguishing s- cessful from unsuccessful companies. At the latest since Michael Porter’s study on the competitiveness of nations, the same criterion holds even for the evaluation of entire countries and national economies. Despite the innumerable number of p- lications and recommendations on innovation, competitive innovativeness is still a rare competency. The latest publication of UNICE – the European Industry - ganization representing 20 million large, midsize and small companies – speaks a clear language: Europe qualifies to roughly 60% (70%) of the innovation strength of the US (Japan). The record unemployment in many EU countries does not c- tradict this message. A main reason may be given by the fact that becoming an innovative organi- tion means increased openness towards the new and more tolerance towards risks and failures, both challenging the inherently difficult management art of cultural change. Further, lacking innovativeness is often related to legal and fiscal barriers which rather hinder than foster innovative activities. Yet another reason to explain Europe’s notorious innovation gap refers to insufficient financial R&D resources on the company as well as on the national level. As a result, for example, hi- ranking decisions on the level of the European Commission are taken to increase R&D expenditures in the European Union from roughly 2% to 3% of GNP.

This book summarizes highlights of the investigation of “An Elucidation of the Role of Institutional Systems in Characterizing Technology Development Trajectories – A Global Comparative Analysis of Manufacturing Technology and Information Te- nology in the Enhancement of Business Practice” supported by Grant-in-Aid for Scienti?c Research (S) by Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology/Japan Society for Science Policy over the period 2002–2006. Background and objectives of the investigation are summarized as follows: (a) Japan ranks far below the level of the USA with respect to the development and utilization of information technology (IT) in the information society that emerged in the 1990s. (b) This can be attributed toa vicious cycle between Japan’s non-elastic institutions, insuf?cient utilization of the potential bene?ts of IT, and economic stagnation. (c) The source of such a vicious cycle can be derived from the fundamental d- ferences of the characterizing process of technology between manufacturing technology (MT) and IT during their diffusion processes. This investigation - tempted to elucidate this mechanism. Noteworthy ?ndings obtained include: (a) MT has been developed largely by the supply side and its functionality is - tablished during the stage of its supply to the market. In contrast, IT is strongly driven by the demand side and its functionality is created through diffusion in a self-propagating way. This contrast can be clearly observed in the dramatic advancement of Japan’s mobile phone industry in the late 1990s.

While political and cultural factors are important as explanations for differences in national technology policy and industrial practices, emergent trends in science, engineering and management are leading to new paradigms for high-technology innovation in both Japan and the United States. During the Spring of 1992, participants in a seminar at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government had the opportunity to explore in depth the views of a distinguished group of technical leaders from eight large Japanese industrial corporations. The focus of the seminar was to explore alternative views of the innovation process, examine approaches to managing innovation and setting technology strategy within the firm, and discuss the future of the business environment and management approaches. The examination of Japanese innovations in the management of technology that resulted from this seminar will be useful not only to technical managers in Japan, the United States, and other countries, but may also help inform public policy by shedding light on the sources of competitive advantage in both nations. Co-published with the Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University.

Since the introduction of Industry 5.0, there has been a greater emphasis on the human-centric view in human-machine collaboration. As society has benefitted from technological advancements in all aspects of industrial sectors, there has been a rethinking of the role human beings should play in future evolutions.

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This book deals with the importance of ambidexterity in innovation activities and global strategies. Ambidextrous global strategy (AGS) is crucial for global firms in the turbulent twenty-first century. Here, AGS is defined as simultaneous achievements of global integration and local adaptation, or responsiveness, through utilization of a firm’s core facilities and organizational capabilities. To illustrate the specific implementation mechanism, a framework of AGS with global market strategy and organizational capability is shown for the purpose of analysis. There is also a focus on effective ambidextrous business strategies for the digital transformation era. Distinctive features of the book include, first, a framework of ambidextrous innovation and AGS. Second, there are analyses of examples of many industries to implement ambidexterity strategies, including Korean shipbuilding firms, Korean and Japanese steel firms, LCD panel flat-glass manufacturers, Japan’s trucking industry, agricultural corporations, and other Japanese manufacturing firms. Finally, the book focuses on effective ambidextrous business strategies for the digital transformation era with the integration of open and closed innovation. The book presents specific business strategies for survival in the digital transformation era and then suggests an architectural analysis using artificial intelligence (AI) for the realization of AGS. The target readership is made up of academics, students, and practitioners in the areas of global management, organizational theory, and strategic management. Especially for those readers, the book clarifies the critical practices and business strategies of innovative global firms in the era of digital transformation.

This book provides a new perspective on innovation in consultancy firms. Focusing on how consultancy firms can innovate in the modern era, it exposes and discusses key drivers for innovation in the industry. These are broken down into 5 dimensions - or ‘Poles’ - relating to forms of capital (human capital, social capital, and three types of organizational capital) that consultancy firms can use in order to innovate, both for themselves and for their clients. Readers of this book will not only gain insight into the "innovative consultancy" from the perspective of each of these Poles. They will also discover how consultancy firms need to find the right way of connecting these Poles together in order to produce the desired innovation. Readers will learn about the dangers of misaligning the Poles, as well as implications of innovative consultancy for ethics, academic research in the field of consultancy, and for careers. In addition to the academic literature, the book draws from real-world examples, cases and practice insights from various parts of the world. This book will be of great use to those interested in pursuing a career in the consultancy industry, whether they are undergraduate and postgraduate Business & Management students, students not necessarily studying in Business Schools, or others seeking a career move into consultancy. It will also be valuable to seasoned consultants and managers of consultancy firms seeking new ideas on how to develop innovative capabilities in an increasingly competitive industry.

Engineers are a key occupational group in the transformation of the modern world. Contrasts between Japans economic miracle and Britains relative economic decline have often been linked to differences in education, training and employment of engineers. Yet, such views have often rested on little more than colourful anecdotes and selective statistics. Using careful and systematic comparisons, Kevin McCormick locates the differences between rhetoric and reality to dismiss both the inflated claims of the 1980s and the excessive detraction of the 1990s with Japans prolonged recession.