Abstract
In recent years, the production systems of Japanese manufacturing industry have gained knowledge-intensive or technology-intensive features. This tendency extended from metropolitan to rural areas. The purpose of this study is to elucidate, the technological and local conditions of innovative SMEs from the viewpoint of knowledge and learning. This paper takes the innovative SMEs in the Suwa area as an advanced example of the transformation of small and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Japanese nonmetropolitan industrial agglomerations. For this purpose, the author conducted interviews at the headquarters of 20 SMEs in 2001.
Innovative SMEs have formed and grown with the transformation of the production systems of Japanese manufacturing industry. In the hope of breaking away from their subcontracting work and expanding their business opportunities, innovative SMEs began to add new lines of work, such as experimental production or the development of original products, in the early 1990s. Continual technological learning enabled them to create a technological base with their highly skilled and sophisticated knowledge workers. Technological learning consists of the collection, acquisition, and creation of knowledge or information related to machining technology. Information creating knowledge is collected from other actors such as business service companies, suppliers, and other companies. Technological learning brought about the growth and development of innovative SMEs.
Information relevant to technological learning is mainly information creating tacit knowledge of machining technology. Most such information used in technological learning concerns materials or tools. Innovative SMEs have acquired and collected information by “learning by doing.” Such experimental learning contributes to the information on tacit knowledge, and innovative SMEs have accumulated the technology needed to expand their businesses. Information needed for experimental work is provided by actors located in the Suwa area. In that sense, technological learning depends heavily on the existence of the Suwa area as an agglomeration.
In conclusion, innovative SMEs have grown and developed during the economic evolution of Japan. In this process, the production systems of Japanese manufacturing industry have changed to knowledge- and technology-based ones. The author suggests that innovative SMEs are the forerunners of other Japanese SMEs in the globalized economy.
