The paper examines the relationship among Information and Communication Technology (ICT), ageing, and health expenditures in Japan. For this, primary data has been collected from an extensive mail survey that was carried in Nishiaizu Town, Fukushima prefecture, Japan from 2002 to 2010. 9 years...

This study focuses on the role of human factors in the innovation processes of firms in four member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), i.e., Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Firms are required first to obtain new information related to innovation and...

This book is a collaborative effort by researchers from Japan, Italy, and the US which seeks to explore the question of why firms congregate in certain regions. The studies in the book present real examples of industrial clusters, adding anecdotal evidence to the emerging theory of economic...

Recently social media such as Blog and SNS has been introducing by many firms for means of sharing information inside the firm, in particular to promote product and process innovation. This paper attempts to examine the relationship between social media and product innovation, and research...

Deployment of broadband, particularly, FTTx, is now one of major policy objectives in many countries, including Japan, Korea, and the U.S., for example. The U.S. announced a National Broadband Plan which aimed at providing 100 million households with access to 100 Mbps broadband services by...

One of the common features of innovative SMEs identified from our previous surveys and in-depth interviews is innovation capability accumulated inside the firm, which enables them to create new products which meet customer needs and to cooperate with the other firms. The factors that SMEs...