In recent years, we have been observing a rise in cases of continuous development projects. However, if we try to improve development productivity using the data and development knowhow that we have accumulated, it then becomes difficult to use this to expand product functions. In fact, a “development productivity dilemma” actually exists, in which it is difficult for each product to have both improved development productivity and expanded product functions. In the case discussed in this paper, however, the company sacrifices development productivity to expand the product functions of a particular product and then applies this to streamlining and simplifying subsequent products. In other words, the development productivity dilemma was overcome by managing the flow of a series of new products.

The survey of Chinese employees working for Japanese companies and graduating from universities in China revealed that factors such as intercultural gap, Japanese ability, and workplace human relations have limited correlation with the 4-faceted motivation scores. The existence of career perspectives did however appear to relate to motivation scores including learning. The reason for low motivation scores of Chinese employees derived from the fact that they had limited opportunities for participating in job fairs during their job search, or communicating with senior employees. Due to the absence of a career perspective, employees were dissatisfied with their day-to-day work after joining the companies.

Interdepartmental collaboration is considered to be critical to innovation and efficiency. This paper differentiated industrial design (ID) and engineering design (ED), which differ in their nature and are handled by different departments, and reviews in the literature on the impact that interdepartmental collaboration among industrial designers and other areas involved in product development has on innovation and efficiency. We found that: (1) regarding innovation, interdepartmental collaboration has a positive effect on design innovation, and CE type interdepartmental collaboration has a positive effect on technology innovation. (2) Regarding efficiency, we found that the effect on the efficiency of the product development process was not consistent, and production efficiency was not looked into in prior research.

COVID-19 has accelerated the spread of telecommuting in Japan. In past studies regarding telecommuting, it was proved to be the result of i-deals, so it was discussed in the context of location flexibility i-deals (LFi-deals). The spread of COVID-19, however, has given rise to semi-compulsory telecommuting. Therefore, this study takes three groups: Group A, which continues to work at the office as before; Group B, which has started to telecommute (inexperienced telecommuters) so that telecommuting is regarded as semi-compulsory; and Group C, which has experience with telecommuting (experienced telecommuters) so that telecommuting is the result of making LFi-deals; and investigates the relationship that telecommuting has with the degree of self-determination (DSD) and productivity. Our analysis found that between Group B and Group C, which were both telecommuting, both DSD and productivity were significantly higher for Group C which has LFi-deals compared with Group B, for which telecommuting is semi-compulsory. However, DSD and productivity were higher for Group B than for Group A, so it is possible that starting to telecommute leads to more LFi-deals, a greater DSD, and higher productivity.

The workcation, wherein people combine work with vacation, is a concept that originated in the United States and Europe with the spread of information and communications technology (ICT). Although it is considered a workstyle for independent people as epitomized by freelancers and the like, in Japan, the term has come to convey something different from its original meaning, taking a unique direction in which some types of training programs are referred to as workcation. How did this change come about? This study, based on surveys of three regions, examines the origin and development of satellite office workcation and learning workcation to ascertain the following. (1) In Japan, people with workcation are assumed to be employees. (2) Therefore, the workcation is heavily influenced by local governments' intentions (wanting to associate with exchange populations) and companies' intentions (it is difficult to dispatch employees to outlying areas without a work-related purpose). (3) Therefore, the workcation has evolved into something that aims to enhance creativity, learning, and introspection through close ties with communities.