Abstract
For revitalizing Japanese industry, we observe the roles of mid-sized enterprises which have achieved sustained growth over several decades against large and start-up firms. This paper focuses on three pharmaceutical companies and identifies the characteristics and roles of their innovations. The characteristics and roles of innovation in these corporations can be summarized as follows: Innovations come in two types: breakthroughs, which occur every 10 or 15 years, and improvements. There are more innovations in product development and improvement innovations than production technology (process improvement). In addition to the above technical innovations, managerial and marketing innovations are important in product introduction and subcontracting of sales. In stimulating of innovation, the roles of technical development and cooperation between industry and academia have contributed to the selection of research subjects and ideas for solution. Also cooperation with other companies has been an important factor in innovation and building human networks. We have identified the characters of mid-sized enterprises. These are close relationships between corporate management and ownership, employees holding a sense of belonging, clear identification of their business domain and mission of the founder and aims to achieve sustained growth, inheritance of the entreprenurship of the founder. Also, business fields are, limited in related fields (not so diversified).
