The strategic theory of resource-based view (RBV) put Penrose (1959) in the spotlight. The key to understanding Penrose's assertion is the concept of economies of growth independent of economies of size. According to Penrose, even when economies of size are not working, economies of growth exist regardless of size. Further, the economies of growth are temporary in nature and disappear once expansion is completed. In which managerial services are the economies of growth embodied? This paper hypothesizes that the economies of growth occur where there are unused start-up expert managerial services. Regardless of size, where these services exist, paving the company's way by step-by-step growth should produce profits.

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This study examines the market orientation–performance link in the context of service organizations by comparing different approaches for measuring market orientation. Focusing on 54 shops of a Japanese automobile dealership firm, this study measures market orientation through both managers' and salespersons' perceptions as well as both the MKTOR and MARKOR scales. The results of the analysis reveal that market orientation measured through salespersons' perceptions, particularly its cultural components, positively affects sales productivity. In fact, qualitative evidence suggests that salespersons' perceptions of market orientation indicate their internalization of market-oriented values, which in turn leads to continuous improvement behavior.

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In this study, data was obtained from a questionnaire of 354 workplace leaders and 3,116 workers at 97 workplaces in Japan's electrical and electronics industry, which was used to examine relationships among a perspective index, job satisfaction, and desire to leave one's job (i.e., turnover candidacy). Takahashi, mainly targeting white-collar workers, noted that a perspective index has a mostly linear, positive relationship with job satisfaction, and a mostly linear, negative relationship with turnover candidacy. In this study, a similar relationship is identified in leaders and workers on the shop floor (gemba in Japanese). The job satisfaction level of the gemba leaders was almost the same as that realized by Takahashi (1997), but the job satisfaction level among manufacturing workers generally tended to be higher. Moreover, turnover candidacy among manufacturing workers was lower than that realized by Takahashi (1997).

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The development of pharmaceuticals is an extraordinarily unique process. However, the aspects that are unique in comparison with other industries have never been clearly explained, either academically or practically. Clinical trials are an emblem of the uniqueness of pharmaceutical development; however, using industry-specific ideas and vocabulary do not enable cross-industry comparisons. This paper analyzes the product development process of pharmaceuticals using a problem-solving model that can be applied to comparisons across industries, and organizes the characteristics as well as effective management techniques. From the problem-solving perspective, the pharmaceutical development is unique because it requires the generation of numerous alternative solutions and complex testing. There exist products or industries that share one of these two characteristics, but only a few products or industries share both the characteristics. These characteristics closely relate to product development management of pharmaceuticals. In other words, considering the cost of product development, it is difficult to simultaneously create many alternatives and conduct complicated tests. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies focus on creating many alternatives in the upstream development process, and then testing in the downstream process, responding to this problem by balancing between the two characteristics and switching at the appropriate time. Determining the timing of this switch is one of the most important management techniques that impacts the performance of pharmaceutical development.

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