In the field of knowledge management system (KMS) studies, the ‘use’ has been focused on by many researchers. It is not easy to increase the use of KMS, and how to facilitate the use has been a significant challenge in KMS operation. However, the previous studies have given little attention to difference of the usage and to difference of combination of the usage. KMS usage can be classified into contents browsing and knowledge registering. The former contents browsing could include applying the contents to other situation as well as just reusing them. And the latter knowledge registering could include not only updating new knowledge but recording facts. In addition, these usages would be combined generally. Therefore, the present paper classifies the usage of KMS, and examines the relation between the combination patterns of KMS usages and their effects. Through the quantitative survey, it is shown that different patterns could cause different results. We confirm that to identify the usage would be meaningful in future KMS research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate and analyze Iris Ohyama as a leading example of a company that has managed the implementation of a vertical launch strategy and to thereby shed light on the characteristics and success factors of this management approach. As a result, the key characteristics of this management approach were as follows: The products targeted by the strategy were limited to solution-type and concepttype products, and at weekly product development meetings, the company’s top management made decisions, based on proposals, concerning every aspect of product commercialization and business launch. Development progressed swiftly thanks to work being conducted in parallel both inside and outside the department, and at pre-launch negotiations involving the sales team that were held at an early stage, actual sales forecasts were made and the number of stores the products would be sold at was determined. Furthermore, a concentrated campaign of television commercials informed consumers of the concepts for the new products, while in-store sales promotions resulted in purchases. In addition, a unique approach to managing the production and distribution activities that underpinned this ensured that the benefits of the strategy were maximized.