Since the 2000s, researchers have increasingly employed a biological analogy to conceptualize the progression of corporate governance, whereby companies’ boards of directors evolve across the organizational life cycle, from inception and initial public offering (IPO) to maturity and decline. Furthermore, with the rise of venture firms, which serve as engines of innovation in the Japanese economy, there has been mounting demand from the business community to develop theories pertaining to the establishment of corporate governance in venture firms both prior to and following IPOs. In this paper, we conduct a systematic review of the literature on “evolutions of corporate governance in IPO threshold firms,” which has not necessarily been established as a single research area, although interest has been growing in recent years. We have structured and systematized the methods and theoretical underpinnings of extant research. Based on our findings, we put forth a research agenda aimed at investigating the evolutionary process of governance in IPO threshold firms, along with the causal conditions driving the “substantial” evolution of governance in public venture firms.

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As a business involving lime, Inoue Calcium Corporation (IC) presented incremental innovations, especially in two products: META-Z (an active zinc oxide/rubber vulcanization accelerator) and IC Bordeaux (a fungicide for orchards and vineyards). These innovations gave IC a competitive advantage in its markets, which the company successfully exploited. The company’s first tradition was founded on refining lime using the limestone of Kochi Prefecture and its chloride volatility process. Its second tradition, which IC also fostered and exploited, was twofold, i.e., its orientation towards pursuing high value-added methods and products for lime and the company’s organizational abilities. Likewise, the company pursued successful exploration in domains outside its main business. Here, IC enjoyed disruptive innovation, especially in two areas. These include the creation of its related plant-breeding business as well as the development of a new variety of mini-tomato, Sweetear, and TOSA, a wine made from a new variety of grapes, plus the creation of its related wine business. Takashi Inoue, the sixth-generation CEO of ICC, has been the driver of the above successes. His strategic intent, engagement and support, architecture design, and strengthening of company identity have all been signs of his effective management. The result has been the exploitation of IC’s first tradition with incremental innovation and exploration supported by the company’s second tradition of disruptive innovation. In other words, IC has successfully balanced company tradition and innovation.

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In this case study research, an impact for cultivation of entrepreneurship and establishment of startups by entrepreneurship education is considered. The target is Tsukuba area where cutting-edge research institutions are concentrated, such as University of Tsukuba that has one of highest numbers of university-launched startups as well as National research centers. We hypothesized that the three-step education program would help participants to manifest their entrepreneurial intentions/activities by: 1) mindset fostering to raise awareness of social issues, 2) entrepreneurial skill development to build up a business model for commercialization, and 3) providing start-up support by accompanying them in brushing up their business plans through interviews with customers. We established the program by relating university courses organically with entrepreneur development projects of the Ministry of Education. As a result, the rate of starting a business reached 20-30%, and the individual mentoring system with access to the real market, which is conducted in 3), was verified to have a strong impact on entrepreneurial intentions, including interviews with the individuals who started their own businesses.

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In recent years, it has often been a phenomenon that emerging startups enter into a product/service market where an incumbent platform (PF) has already grown to a certain scale and has gained a certain market share. Although prior studies on platform businesses have explained how multiple PF firms coexist in the same product/service market, a few studies discuss new entry strategies. This paper focuses on “the specific features” of both incumbent PF and latecomers. Specifically, we analyzed 1) how latecomers’ specific features can create new value propositions and generate new demand, 2)how latecomers can create barriers for imitation by incumbent PF and they can sustain differentiation through their specific features. The conclusion of this paper is as follows. When incumbent PFs expand and are not able to meet market demand increases if the late entrant’s specific features could provide a new value proposition to a portion of the unmet demands, the demand will emerge and the late entrant will succeed in entering the market. In addition, if the specific features of the late entrant have “indirectness” to the specific features of the incumbent PF and user trends, the differentiation strategy of the late entrant will be sustained.

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