The business environment surrounding small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms in Japan is rapidly changing. This study focuses on dynamic capabilities, which are considered effective organizational capabilities to cope with a rapidly changing business environment, and examines the impact of learning capability, integrating capability, and senior management’s group norms on corporate performance. Based on the results of the questionnaire analysis, we found that learning capability and team efficacy are important factors that improve the performance of small- and medium-sized manufacturing firms. We also found that norms for maintaining consensus as perceived by senior management should be suppressed or promoted in some cases, depending on the phase of the business process.

This study examined the alliances made by regional bakeries and Pan for You, Inc. (PFY), as examples of regional small- and medium-sized enterprises (small businesses) generating new value through open innovation together with a startup. Employing a modified grounded theory approach, data from interviews with ten regional bakery owners were used to analyze the alliance formation and collaboration processes. The study results contrast with previous research that found the motivation to enter an open innovation alliance was to grow sustainably due to the perceived benefits of innovating independently. However, in this study the motivation of the regional bakeries was to stabilize their business. The perceived low risk of working within the startup business model was the most critical in a regional bakery’s decision to collaborate with PFY.

As Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) pushes forward with its multi-pathway strategy, it is also fully committed to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and has set a goal of creating a system to produce 1.5 million BEVs by 2026 and 3.5 million by 2030. In China, the competition to lower the price of BEVs is intensifying, and BYD and other Chinese automakers are accelerating their expansion into Southeast Asia. Also, in terms of software-defined vehicle (SDV) level, which is a major component of performance, Toyota lags far behind Tesla and Chinese automakers. It is worrisome that Toyota spends less on research and development (R&D) than Tesla and BYD. While Toyota was late to the EV shift by failing to demonstrate superior dynamic managerial capabilities (DMC), its strong ordinary capabilities (OC) allowed it to continue to perform well and “buy time” while at the same time “eraning funds” for future BEV development. Toyota’s problems are likely to be concentrated in the dynamic resource capabilities (DRC), including the need to allocate further resources to R&D expenses and a development schedule that does not leave enough room. This realization was made possible by the utility of the OC/DMC framework, which can be broken down into four categories and list a company’s capabilities. The challenges for the product are how to compensate for the delay in the SDV level and whether it can achieve the cost that can compete with BYD. If the development of all-solid-state batteries proceeds successfully, there is a possibility that these issues can be improved to a considerable degree. These insights were gained through the application of DMC theories, such as the modified Christensen model and the four types of new entry strategies.

While Japanese automakers including Toyota and Honda are embroiled in the electric vehicle (EV) wars caused by the trend of CASE—namely connected cars (C), autonomous vehicles (A), share driving (S), and electric vehicles (E)—they have found themselves largely lagging behind forerunners such as Tesla and BYD. The causes of this delay in the case of Toyota were covered in Kawai (2022). This paper examines the causes of Honda’s delay, employing the framework of dynamic managerial capabilities (DMC) and progressing in the order of Phase 1 (until participation in the EV wars), Phase 2 (end of Phase 1 to launch of first EV), and Phase 3 (end of Phase 2 to present). A lack of DMC was discovered to be the major cause of Honda’s delay. Although Honda has launched an ambitious plan of investment to make up ground, the lack of DMC is thought to leave its prospects dim.

Generally, Japan’s diffusion of autonomous driving technology lags behind that of the U.S. Level 4 autonomous driving (autonomous driving that does not require a driver in the car, under limited conditions, such as remote monitoring) has been permitted—under particular conditions—since April 2023. Cost and safety issues have been cited as major reasons for the lack of practical applications and diffusion of automated driving in Japan. In addition, Japan has very high safety standards compared with the U.S. and China, and advanced safety measures are required for the introduction of automated vehicles, which have slowed the spread of autonomous driving technology in Japan. However, in consideration of its importance, efforts to promote the spread of autonomous driving are becoming more active nationwide, with the government also providing subsidies. This paper examines new value creation through autonomous driving technology and lay the basis for making various researches including a comparative analysis of that among the four countries/regions (U.S., China, Europe, and Japan).