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...

Contrary to its highest R&D intensity, Japan has dramatically decreased its productivity in the 1990s. This can be attributed to a low marginal productivity of technology. Such a productivity decrease compels a delay in R&D, which results in reduced R&D productivity leading to a vicious cycle...

This paper examines the effects of technological distance on the performance of manufacturing sectors relative to the proximity of R&D activities in adjacent prefectures in Japan, and identifies agglomeration effects in innovation and productivity. This analysis provides constructive insights to...

Contrary to its conspicuous achievement as an industrial society, Japan has been experiencing long lasting economic stagnation due to a paradigm shift toward an information society that emerged in the 1990s. This contraction can be attributed to the shift from a growth‐oriented trajectory in...

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...

Under the new paradigm of an information society, Japan’s institutions did not function as effeciently as they did in an industrial society. Consequently, Japan experienced a vicious cycle between non‐elastic institutions and insufficient utilization of the potential benefits of IT. However,...