Purpose – A virtuous cycle between effective utilization of external resources and functionality development can be constructed. Given that the timely emergence of new functionality in an efficient way is crucial to a firm's competitive strategy in an era of mega‐competition, construction of...

Japan’s chemical industry is currently amidst mega‐competition in the paradigm shift from an industrial society to an information society that emerged in the 1990s and consequent globalizing economy. The checkered development trajectory of Japan’s chemical industry has resulted in a...

Why do some country’s hi-tech firms innovate better than others? Why did hi-tech firms from the United States outperform such Japanese companies in the 1990s? Through a wealth of empirical evidence, the book compares the development trajectory of manufacturing technology and information...

Purpose: Sustainable functionality development (FD) is decisive to firm's profitability in their new innovation in a competitive market. While functionality instills attractive values in innovative goods leading to a dramatic increase in profit through increasing demand and higher prices, it...