2023 Volume 38 Issue 1 Pages 130-145
In order to solve the difficult environmental issues, manufacturing enterprises must transform their industrial structure from one that relies on underground resources to sustainable one. It is especially important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in each region to actively innovate and transform themselves.
In this study, we tried to explicate the implicit thinking processes of managers in local manufacturing SMEs by using the action decomposition tree method, an ontology engineering technique. We interviewed managers in three innovative enterprises located in Yonezawa City, Yamagata Prefecture, and described their structures of thinking by action decomposition trees. We extracted upper and lower concepts from the trees and created questions. The questionnaire survey revealed that their ways of thinking and structures of thinking also exist in the other managers in the Yonezawa region. In addition, the relationship between the history and culture unique to the region and the extracted thinking was also investigated.
