This study examines why labor unions in Japan typically preserve their negotiation powers within the enterprise unionism framework, despite criticism of potentially fostering collusive labor-management relations and weak external oversight. By conducting a qualitative analysis from extensive interview data, this research investigates the modifications in the unions’ two types of voices throughout the reform period around 2000, when employees were exposed to the increased risk of being put at a disadvantage during business downturns. This study aimed to elucidate the strategies employed by labor unions to effectively utilize both engagement voice (EV) and negotiation voice (NV) inextricably, thereby offering an explanation for the persistence of enterprise unionism without compromising the adequate tension of labor-management relations. It　provided a novel theoretical contribution by examining the strengths and limitations of enterprise-based unions’ voice behaviors in Japan.

This study employs bibliometric analysis to examine the consistency and fragmentation of research trends in entrepreneurship studies from 2000 to 2024. The findings reveal that four core themes—‘innovation,’ ‘entrepreneurship,’ ‘institutional theory,’ and ‘entrepreneurial orientation’—have been consistently central throughout the period. However, recent years have witnessed an increase in studies addressing emerging phenomena, such as crowdfunding and digital technologies, suggesting a trend toward thematic diversification. By tracing the chronological evolution of the knowledge base in entrepreneurship research, this study highlights the enduring theoretical foundations and underscores the need for more detailed investigations into emerging trends.

This study integrates resource dependence theory and social network theory to explore how two key interlocking network positions—central network position and structural holes—drive corporate green innovation. Using empirical data from listed manufacturing firms in Japan between 2013 and 2019, a country renowned for its environmental leadership, the analysis reveals that both central network positions and structural holes significantly enhance the development of green technologies. Furthermore, absorptive capacity and connectivity with industry leaders are identified as moderating factors influencing the relationship between these network positions and green innovation. Distinct from prior research, this study highlights the pivotal role of network positions in fostering corporate green innovation. The insights provided are valuable for executives looking to enhance their firms' green innovation performance and for policymakers committed to advancing eco-innovation.

In existing firms, the transformation from a leader of an established company to an intrapreneur takes place in the development of new ventures. To explain this management phenomenon, it is necessary to construct a theoretical model that bridges entrepreneurship and leadership. The purpose of this study is to identify the issues involved in researching the transformation from leader to intrapreneur. As research methods for this purpose, this study conducts (1) a comparative analysis of journals and keywords by searching article databases and (2) a review of previous studies. The presented frame of the transformation from leader to intrapreneur includes at its core the attitudes, characteristics, behaviors, and outcomes of intrapreneurs, as well as organizational factors that influence intrapreneurs, some organizational outcomes, and entrepreneurial middle management. In addition, organizational structure, organizational culture, organizational change, and transformational leadership are outside of the leader-to-intrapreneur transformations. The implications of this study are (1) that it identifies the issues related to the leader-to-intrapreneur transformation and (2) that it bridges the research areas of entrepreneurship and leadership. The limitations of this research include the fact that the causal relationships between the factors have not been demonstrated, and the mechanism of leader-to-intrapreneur transformation has not been clarified.

This study aims to clarify how companies acquire technological seeds from outside the company for new business creation and match them to the technological needs of open innovation. Open innovation is an important concept for companies intending to create new businesses. Furthermore, the importance of industry–academia collaboration with universities possessing advanced technology is increasing. Therefore, this study examines the process by which companies disclose their technological needs necessary for commercialization to universities, jointly research about the technology seeds and acquire those suitable for their needs, and create new businesses. A case analysis of Nippon Signal’s micro electro mechanical systems-based 3D distance measurement image sensor commercialization revealed that after outbound technology needs were conveyed to companies, compatibility with the companies’ technology needs was established through the chain creation of new technology seeds in university laboratories, followed by their inbound to companies.

This study introduces the concept of "wellbeing-driven entrepreneurship," which is defined as a form of entrepreneurship that does not prioritize economic rationality but instead places a strong emphasis on the wellbeing of individual entrepreneurs. The study then proceeds to examine the characteristics and impact of this concept through the lens of two case studies, exploring the concept in an exploratory manner.
The case studies revealed the significance of location in wellbeing-driven entrepreneurship and the manner of initiating a business that integrates hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. Furthermore, the introduction of "wellbeing-driven entrepreneurship," a concept that does not prioritize unnecessarily rapid growth, provides a foundation for discussing the creation of genuinely affluent lifestyles and communities, diverging from the conventional discourse on entrepreneurship that emphasizes rapid growth.

This research examines direct investments in Japan by Taiwanese semiconductor companies over the past two decades (2004–2023) and their impact on operational efficiency. We first utilize Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate inefficiency scores of semiconductor companies, and then apply truncated regression to assess how investing in Japan affects these bias-corrected scores. Our findings indicate that companies investing in Japan generally show higher operational efficiency than non-investors. However, we find no evidence that these investing companies gain extra efficiency from their supply chain activities in Japan.