The fact is already well-known that the level of entrepreneurial acitivity in Japan has been lower than the other advanced countries according to Global Entrepreneurship Monitir (GEM). One of the main reasons is considered to be the low level of entrepreneurial attitude. GEM model tells us entrepreneurial activity begins among potential entrepreneurs who are defined as adults with entrepreneurial attitude. Therefore it is natural that countries with low level of attitude such as Japan have a smaller population of entrepreneurs. However it is also true that the level of entrepreneurial activity of Japan becomes higher than the other advanced countries when attitude-related variables are controlled. These two facts were already reported at JASVE Annual Academic Meeting 2012. This paper will discuss about whether or not these characteristics of Japan among advanced countries could apply to local areas within Japan. This is because the level of entrepreneurial activity in local areas is also lower than greater metropolitan areas in Japan.The conclusions are as follows: the lower level of activity is also accompanied by the lower level attitude across different regions in Japan. However the level of entrepreneurial activity among potential entrepreneurs is almost same among different regions in Japan. According to these conclusions we can say that political measures working on attitude would be effective across regions in Japan. However there would be some missing important factors that have strong influences on entrepreneurial activities other than attitude-related variables that are used in this paper.

This article examines the applicability of real options to the improvement of robustness of Research and Development (R&D) durability of biotech start-ups against the valley of deficits or the systemic risk like the financial crisis, because they have to endure more than 10 years to get approval of the medicine on the market subject to the resource constrains, if they could raise enough financial resources. The organization of this article is consisted of four components except introduction and conclusion. First component mentions the present analysis on investment environment for R&D durability of biotech start-ups. Second component examines the existing basic theory on the decision reserving functions of real options. Third component is attempting to make clear the flexibility value from a sequential compound switching option that is designed to select the optimal mode between the assumed drug development process as a benchmark and the cooperative development in strategic partnership on the way. And fourth component is also trying to mapping of selective decisions at the market and cooperative development risks (or potential) based on these data. Further it aims to support for decision making by creating 3 dimensional graphs on the Net Present Value and both risks and on these indices with market volatility.

We suggest that the global strategy of high-tech startups is categorized into two types. One is a knowledge-based firm; the other is a knowledge-intensive firm. We present two propositions, which are related to debut to global market and resource acquisition, for each type and examine four case-studies in Cambridge, U.K. Knowledge-based startups target global market from the beginning and challenge to penetrate into the market rapidly. They are highly globalized in acquiring core technology, financial and human resource. On the other hand, knowledge-intensive startups start from the limited local market and their activities are also limited in acquiring core technology, financial and human resource. However, once those startups establish business models to offer high customers' convenience, they expand the business over the global market gradually.

Companies are faced with the need to actively promote innovation activities for the survival and growth of their aim, to expand into new business areas. As a method for successful innovation activities, corporate venturing (hereinafter CV) is one of useful technique for aiming to business growth business to survive. This paper analyzes the promotion organization of CV from the perspectives of investment style. When viewed from investment style, they are classified into ‘the investment in external corporate venturing’ and ‘the investment in internal corporate venturing’, which is further categorized into (1) the organization that emphasizes developing new projects by utilizing business ideas emerging from its bottom members (i.e., bottom-up style) and (2) the organization that focuses on creating the central pillar of its future business by using the initiatives of managing members (i.e., top-down style). The paper clarifies the promoter image classified by the types of the above bottom-up style and top-down style. Further, by comparing the promoter image of the CV promotion organization with the manager image of a conventional type organization, the paper clarifies the differences between them, exploring the necessary elements for the promoter appointment in the future CV promotion organization.

The paper examines key success factors for new projects initiated by front line employees, and the legitimacy for resource mobilization by project branding. Under today’s severe economic circumstances, it is critical for companies to increase their long term competitiveness by innovation and new project. Front line employees who interact with customers know customers’ needs and wants very well. Thus, it is recommended that companies make use of front line employees as project leaders for new projects. For successes of projects initiated by front line employees, it is necessary that project leaders create the legitimacy of the project and the legitimacy for resources allocation into projects. The resources consist of managerial resource and talent project members. It is considered that those resources would be key success factors. Firstly, the study examined previous works and conducted qualitative analyses for specifying key success factors, and then verified those factors by quantitative analyses. The study confirmed that support from company executives and talent project members’ involvements have impact on success of projects. The result revealed that project branding was an effective method for obtaining support from company executives and prompting talent employees’ involvement into projects.

This paper discusses technology marketing needed by small and medium-sized manufacturing firms and evaluates the effectiveness and challenges of strategies for being found by potential customers. For the research method, the researcher first set propositions and examined them through the use of preliminary questionnaires, identifying important issues. Next, important issues were explored in detail by conducting interviews, through which new insights were obtained. The first proposition is that “a strategy for being found by potential customers through making the company’s own technologies visible” is effective. The second proposition is that companies’ own websites are optimal as a method for discovery by potential customers. The third proposition is that avoiding imitation by competitors and protecting customers’ technological secrets are major challenges. After examining these propositions, it was found that the propositions are almost verified, acquiring new findings relating to the challenges. The first finding is that to avoid imitation by competitors, small and medium-sized manufacturing firms should keep their original manufacturing facilities and processes secret. The second finding is that because small and medium-sized manufacturing firms are mainly engaged in BtoB businesses, it is difficult to describe their technologies clearly, and potential customers are limited. The third finding is that appropriate proposals to solve customers’ problems are required and small and medium-sized manufacturing firms need to develop their organizational structures to do so. Finally, it was concluded that websites are the most effective means available to small and medium-sized manufacturing firms for being found by potential customers and at the same time there are several challenges which must be overcome.