Dynamics of Knowledge, Corporate Systems and Innovation

Part 1: Perspectives: Organization Accumulates, Market Utilizes: A Framework of Knowledge-Corporate System-Innovation Dynamics, H. Itami.- Boundaries of Innovation and Social Consensus: Challenge for Japanese Firms, A. Takeishi & T. Numagami.- Redefining Innovation as System Re-definition, K. Kusunoki & Y. Aoshima.- Knowledge, Information, Rules, and Structures, B. Kogut.- The Replication Perspective on Productive Knowledge, S.G. Winter.- Part 2: Issues: Organizational Deadweight and the Internal Functioning of Japanese Firms: An Explorative Analysis on Organizational Dysfunction, T. Kato, M. Karube, & T. Numagami.- Reasons for Innovation: Ligitimizing Resource Mobilization for Innovation in the Cases of Okochi Memorial Prize Winners, A. Takeishi, Y. Aoshima, & M. Karube.- Category Innovation, K. Kusunoki & S. Akutsu.- Moore’s Law, Increasing Complexity and Limits of Organization: Modern Significance of Japanese Chipmakers’ Commodity DRAM Business, H. Chuma & N. Hashimoto.- Do M&As Facilitate Corporate Growth?: Transferring vs. Sharing Control, S. Nagaoka.- International Comparison of Profitability Dispersion, M. Nakano.- International Comparison of Intangible Assets’ Disclosure and Investment Behavior, K. Ito & T. Kagaya.- Japanese Company in the Post-Japanese System: Hoya 1985-1996, Y. Suzuki.- An Entrepreneurial Approach to Service Innovations: Leading Changing Lifestyles in Japan, Y. Fujikawa & C. Kay.

The theme of the book exactly matches the title: the dynamics of knowledge, the corporate system and innovation. Knowledge is created and accumulated in the corporate system, which seeks to utilize it to introduce innovation to the market and society. Corporate organizations generate new knowledge through their in-house R&D activities, and introduce new products and services to the market by combining their own new knowledge and the knowledge generated by others, e.g. universities. Thus, the corporate system is the essential linchpin between knowledge and innovation, and the interactive dynamics between knowledge, the corporate system, and innovation are extremely important. To understand and guide innovative activities in the society, deeper insights into these dynamics are crucial. This book is a step forward in that direction.