2019 Volume 16 Pages 103-120
This study explains the link between entrepreneurs’ identity formation and new product development, as well as the process and mechanism by which this extends to a firm’s competitive advantage. As a case example, we examined the product development of the world’s first Japanese word processor, JW-10, announced by Toshiba Corporation in 1978 and launched the following year. We provided an example of how the identity formation of technology entrepreneur Shinya Amano influenced the development of Kana-Kanji conversion technology and the product development of the JW-10, which had a ripple effect on the company’s competitive advantage. Then, we derive the “entrepreneurial self-theory” as an analogy for the social self-theory of G.H. Mead, and use this to provide a theoretical framework to analyze Shinya Amano’s technology entrepreneurship. Consequently, we show the specific dynamics of the entrepreneurial self, in which product design as a significant symbol. A positive cycle arises from the communication between the entrepreneur and the market through the product architecture, which can lead the entrepreneur to demonstrate emergent reflexivity and achieve a breakthrough, resulting in successful product development, which becomes a source of competitive advantage.
