This paper describes in detail the process from the rise of the market to the establishment of an oligopoly by NEC and its eventual collapse, focusing on the Japanese personal computer market from the late 1970s to the mid-1990s. This paper aims to find out why leader firms fail to respond adequately to innovations, which can significantly damage their competitiveness. In this paper, we will describe this case study more “thickly” than is normally required, based on the following three perspectives: (1) the process strategy perspective, (2) the competitive dynamics perspective, and (3) the action system approach perspective.

Chapter 2 organizes the transition of organizational routine research leading to routine dynamics, and considers the current status and problems of routine dynamics. What is particularly characteristic of this chapter is that, in order to make routine dynamics a more descriptive concept, the observable parts of routines, in addition to formalized rules and standard operating procedures, are defined as actions. This is a point that shows the importance of then, the author critically examines the three implicit assumptions about action and expand the concept of action. In addition, she criticizes the ostensive aspects are equated with artifacts such as formalized rules and standard operating procedures, and are erroneously recognized as concepts with static properties. It points out the current situation and advocates the use of the rhetoric of patterning and performing instead of the rhetoric of ostensive and performative aspects.