While entrepreneurial intention is considered an important antecedent factor predicting entrepreneurial behaviour, the intentions may not lead to a business startup. Although prior research has demonstrated that the effects of role models are strongly related to entrepreneurial intention, it is not clear how role models are involved in enhancing self-efficacy and perceived feasibility. Additionally, there is little discussion on whether role models influence the transition to entrepreneurial behaviour. This study aims to investigate how entrepreneurial intentions are formed and entrepreneurial behaviours develop through skills transfer. It also investigates what effect role models have on the process, from the formation of entrepreneurial intention to the execution of entrepreneurship. This paper is a case study on independent midwives who successfully start their own businesses. The factors influencing entrepreneurial intention formation were perceived feasibility, perceived desirability, and self-efficacy, as indicated by the Shapero-Krueger Model. The effects of role models were based on the four functions proposed by Gibson （2004） and Nauta & Kokaly （2001）. Consequently, skills transfer impacts the formation of entrepreneurial intentions, both in terms of improving professional skills and identity formation and social mission influences the formation of entrepreneurial intentions among professionals. The effects of role models in the entrepreneurial process confirmed all four functions by Gibson and Nauta & Kokaly. Role models provided support or advice during the process from entrepreneurial intention formation to entrepreneurial execution, indicating the need for role models bound by trust for entrepreneurship to be successfully executed. The theoretical implications of this paper are, first, the identification of the possibility that social mission is a predictor of entrepreneurial behaviour in the profession; second, the identification of the effects of role models in the process from entrepreneurial intention formation to entrepreneurial behaviour; and third, the presence of role models can enhance the realization of entrepreneurship.

This paper traces the 40-year history of the Business Archives Association （BAA）, the only organization in Japan specializing in business archives, since its foundation in 1981, and considers the significance of its activities.

　　The BAA was founded mainly by the people of three organizations, the Japan Business History Institute which compiled corporate histories, the Japan Special Libraries Association with a deep interest in collecting corporate histories, and the Business History Society of Japan which promoted research on business history, in a situation where corporate histories continued to be published, while on the other hand a large amount of company material was discarded. The BAA initiated activities to support companies in their corporate history compilation activities and to promote corporate museums, keeping cooperation between museums, libraries and archives.

　　From the 1980s into the 1990s, these activities proceeded smoothly, but as the recession became more prolonged and severe in the late 1990s and 2000s, the compilation of corporate histories and the establishment of museums declined, and the number of BAA’s member companies continued to decrease. However, in the 2000s, when record keeping theory, which was the international standard among the business archivists in the world, gradually took hold in Japan, the BAA replaced the support for corporate history compilation projects with the organization of training courses for business archivists.

　　In the 2010s, this effort bore fruit and the courses began to operate stably, while The Journal of Business Archives, which had previously been issued irregularly, was published in conjunction with the annual general membership meeting in May each year. In addition, the annual “Business Archives Day” symposium in November also became a regular event. In this way, the BAA regained its vitality and is developing into a full-fledged institution that played a role in promoting the development and exchange of business archivists.

Many companies in Japan are known to have published “Shashi” compiling their histories. At the same time, certain deficiencies in Japanese companies’ record management have also been pointed out. It is important to examine how this seemingly contradictory situation came about. This paper examines the relationship between the compilation of “Shashi” and record management practices from the Meiji period to the early Showa period. First, this study found that Japanese companies’ record management gradually shifted from centralized management to separate management during the Meiji period. Next, corporate compilations were published in various forms including business records and company guides, but they gradually developed into “Shashi,” which describe the history of the company. The first “Shashi” publishing boom occurred in the 1930s, and top-down “Shashi” compilation projects were organized as anniversary projects. These corporate history projects do not seem to have been connected to record management as part of routine work, and the person in charge of the project began work by collecting the relevant materials. Faced with a shortage of materials, they initiated various measures such as recording oral history and the collection and conservation of materials. One company also took the step of disclosing internal information in its company history. It can be said that the first “Shashi” publishing boom during the early Showa period posed important challenges to companies, and the following challenges are still relevant today: understanding and preserving company-wide records and disclosing information.

Kirin Group Archives is a corporate archives department within Kirin Holdings. It was established in 1999 as an offshoot of Kirin Brewery’s Corporate History Department, which compiles the company’s history book. Currently, it collects, preserves, and utilizes historical materials not only of Kirin Brewery but also of the Kirin Group. It aims to have Group employees to contribute to enhancing the value of the corporate brand by utilizing historical assets. The Kirin Group Archives has a database that contains over 120,000 records and handles around 400 inquiries a year from Group employees. The focus of collection and preservation activities is the digital archive, which preserves data materials that are currently being generated, in addition to digitizing materials from the past. Internal branding is a key focus of the department’s communication activities. In the 2010s, the department’s plan was to contribute to increasing the value of the brand by communicating outside the group, such as by improving the website and through the company’s official SNS, but in 2020 the department decided to focus on internal branding. Therefore, two strategies were developed. One, a strategy of deep understanding and empathy, and two, a strategy of approaching younger employees and employees who had not previously been involved in the history of the company. Internal branding strategies were developed for external branding as well. In addition, while exploring the nature of corporate archives, we recognized the usefulness of archives for corporate culture and corporate identity, which we utilized in our internal branding activities. This paper presents the current activities of the Kirin Group Archives and examples of internal branding initiatives, as well as examples that have evolved into external branding.

The purpose of this paper is to create a framework for organizing what corporate museums should be, based on the discussions regarding corporate museums that have been accumulated to date. Based on this framework, we will also examine trends and changes in corporate museums that deal with entrepreneurs. In creating a framework for organizing what corporate museums should be, this paper first focuses on the expectations of companies and society regarding corporate museums. Although in recent years there has been a movement to treat these as compatible, in discussions about the nature of corporate museums, they are relatively often seen as contradictory. Furthermore, in order to meet either of these expectations, it is necessary to consider the balance between providing “culture （including contributions to education and research）” and “entertainment （including tourism）”. This paper also focuses on this point when creating a framework for organizing the nature of corporate museums. When considering the trends of corporate museums that deal with entrepreneurs based on the framework created with attention to the above points, the first thing that can be observed is that a relatively large number of corporate museums respond to expectations of contributing to corporate image strategies. This type of organization provides knowledge and education to people inside and outside the company. There are also types of companies that provide games and other highly entertaining experiential content that contribute to corporate image strategies. In the sense that these types of facilities end up playing a role as tourism resources that attract people to the area, they can also be seen as responding to society’s expectations by providing entertainment. On the other hand, since corporate museums that deal with entrepreneurs deal with private individuals such as founders and managers, it is difficult for them to meet society’s expectations that they play the role of museums that deal with public property. This paper argues that there is a solution to this problem by creating a situation in which the ideas and materials of a company’s founders and managers are recognized as public property through the activities of corporate museums and academic research.

This study reviews a common-sense view on preservation of business archives in the United States, namely, the view that “the main core of the business records preservation is corporate archives”. First, by reconstructing the literatures written by business archivists and/or historians （primarily in The American Archivist）, this study grasps a brief history on the preservation movement of business archives in the United States. Second, using the “Directory of Business Archives in the United States and Canada” and “ArchiveGrid”, the article examines the state of preservation of historical business records on the largest 100 US companies in 1917 and 1948, the CBOE 100 companies in 1985 and the S＆P 100 companies in 2023. This historical survey reveals that the nature of business archives keeping in the United State was oriented by the capacity of public facilities the 1930s and 1940s, when the preservation movement of business archives firstly gained momentum. In addition, the repositories’ survey clarifies the significant role of collecting archives （e. g. university archives, institutions owned by local historical societies） for protecting the historical documents of U. S. leading corporations. Nevertheless, the spontaneous-featured collection policy could generate a bias in the types and scopes of corporate records preserved, highlighting the importance of discussion and coordination at the national level.