The Journal of Science Policy and Research Management

Innovation Supporting People and Society

Mutsuhiro ARINOBU

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 114-115
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_114

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The rapidly decreasing population and the stagnant per capita GDP of Japan mean that the current living standard in this country cannot be maintained without improvement of per capita productivity. In other words, innovation is indispensable to support steady development of the life and society of the Japanese people. However, simple extension of the traditional scheme of technological development will not work: today's innovation should be led by the value enjoyed by the people and society, as exemplified by recent novelties such as social networking services or sophisticated financial systems, which are more concerned with the social mechanisms or systems than with advances in science or technology, as was the case in the 20th century. Nevertheless this does not mean any decline in importance of science and technology. Future leaders should therefore have both expertise in their specialties and insight into the real social needs.

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Rethinking Corporate Venturing(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Koji NISHIO

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 116-118
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_116

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Past discussion on Corporate Venturing (CV) has centered around Internal CV such as new business development within a company. This issue aims to look at CV from the side of external relations. Major topics addressed are on Corporate Venture Capital and alliances between incumbents and venture companies. This introduction gives a summary of background information and the purpose of the special reports and following contributed papers.

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A New Viewpoint on Corporate Venturing : Big businesses absorb entrepreneurship(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Noboru MAEDA

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 119-126
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_119

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Corporate venturing means creation of new businesses through incorporation of entrepreneurship by big businesses. Many successful examples are found in both new industries and commodity markets in which large companies establish cross-border "win-win" collaborative relationships with venture businesses. In Japan, however, relatively few cases of corporate venturing can be seen as successful, chiefly because of overestimation of technology as the linking factor of big businesses and venture companies. Analysis of several exemplary cases in Japan shows that their strategies focus generally on the innovative forms of services, new business models, or exploitation of new markets (mostly in Asian countries) instead of novel technologies. A key factor for successful corporate venturing is the leadership of the top management in mobilizing the entire organization and creating a corporate culture favorable for risk taking.

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Literature Review on Corporate Venturing(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Kou YUKAWA, Koji NISHIO

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 127-142
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_127

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One of the reasons that new venture companies are not growing in Japan is that their exit strategies are limited to IPOs. Corporate Venturing (CV) is considered as a measure to help large companies become more involved in venture businesses and thereby improve the M&A market for ventures. CV is not only for venture companies but also is a great opportunity for large companies to make use of external resource for innovation. In Europe and the United States, various researches on CV have developed since 1980's and these research results have had impacts on businesses. This paper defines CV as Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) activities and alliances of large and venture companies and thus discussed the research frontier of Japanese CV research by intensive literature review. Because the research on CV has not progressed in Japan in these years, it has a lot to do for researchers for both large and venture companies.

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Technology Venturing in Electronics Industries : R&D Acceleration and outsourcing through corporate venture capital(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Satoshi KABASAWA

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 143-160
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_143

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We discuss technology venturing as a strategic innovation management vehicle for business growth and sustenance in electronics industries. Specifically, we discuss corporate venture capital (CVC) in consumer electronics industries which have been suffering globally from a sever mega-competition, and technology venturing in which established companies may access emerging technologies of entrepreneurial startups (venture companies) and may conduct technology alliances with some of them for the purpose of R&D acceleration and outsourcing. We overview literatures in researches for CVC program since the mid 1960s from a viewpoint of the technology venturing, discuss business environment status in the consumer electronics industries, why technology venturing is needed for R&D acceleration and outsourcing, and show some CVC cases and Panasonic's practice. Then, we discuss some implications for CVC successes and give implication that both sides should maintain core competences, should respect reciprocally technology potential of each and should have flexibility toward win-win situation.

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Can CVC be a Tool for Corporate Sustainability?(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Fumiko URAKI

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 161-172
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_161

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The present work analyzes the effectiveness of CVC as a tool to enhance corporate sustainability. The key elements for continuous innovation are foreseeing the trends, incubation of new businesses, and effective investment recovery schemes. These elements can be more effective in the open innovation paradigm, in which a company utilizes both internal and external ideas and marketing routes. As an example, a case of CVC-driven open innovation in BASF is described, which greatly expanded the options for the company to secure business sustainability. The essential factors that led the project to a success are discussed. The three elements mentioned above are thought to be enhanced by partial externalization. CVC is also advantageous for the venture businesses in that it brings about not only money but opportunities in collaborative R&D, market development and other activities through an actual market player. CVC has thus proved to be a valuable alternative for continuous innovation.

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Corporate Venturing in Companies and/or Industry (Bio)(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Tadashi MATSUMOTO

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 173-178
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_173

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Corporate Venturing supported by entrepreneurs is a very attractive way for each company to create a new business. Contrary to the beginning of US bio-venturing in 1970's, bio-venturing in Japan was almost 20 years behind. Analyzing several cases including corporate ventures by Kyowa Hakko Kogyo (now: Kyowa Hakko Kirin), the most important factor for leading success of the venture is elucidated as people who manage the company. And those entrepreneurs must be permitted to control their ventures. Regarding talents of entrepreneurs, the ability of project coordination is likely the most important issue. Therefore, more facilitating corporate venturing in Japan, we should think variety of carrier paths of employees to encourage their entrepreneurship and financial supports to their start-up stages in the current severe circumstance where most of Japanese venture capitals are hesitating to invest to the early stage bio-ventures.

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Corporate Venturing The Problems and Solutions in US Enterprises(<SPECIAL REPORTS>RETHINKING CORPORATE VENTURING)

Saeko OZAWA, Yutaka UJIIE

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 179-190
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_179

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Due to concerns over global warming, the development of environmentally friendly products and services are urgently needed. However, in the period of downturn in corporate earnings, the companies are facing difficulties in investing new technologies and businesses, which would not become profitable soon. In this paper, current issues of corporate new businesses/corporate venturing and their solutions will be examined, by discussing the cases of IBM and Google, the two contrasting U.S. companies in the IT industry, which are completely different in their history and corporate culture. Corporate venturing in a large corporation tends to face the problems of short-term oriented and risk-averse corporate culture. The cases presented by IBM and Google indicate the ways in which the large corporations have succeeded in investing in new technologies and launching new businesses, from which Japanese businesses may find remedies to overcome the problems they are facing at the present time.

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[title in Japanese]

Article type: Bibliography
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 191-194
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_191

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"The Global Competitiveness of Japan's Environmentally Sound Technology" Revisited : A View Point of the International Patent Applications

Jun SUZUKI, Juan JIANG

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 195-208
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_195

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The importance of understanding the real technological power of Japanese industries relative to ones of other countries in the realm of Environmentally Sound Technologies (EST) has become pressing for Japanese government and companies to design and implement more effective policies or strategies furthermore. Therefore, this paper aims to ascertain the technological status of Japanese global competitiveness in all areas of the realm with a bird's-eye view, by analyzing meaningful patent counts extracted from PATSTAT database that covers 172 countries (regions). And, in order to gain in-depth insight into the competitiveness in each area of the realm, we develop a novel methodology to identify relative technologies including not only 'core technology' but also 'proximal technology' by employing IPC 'co-occurrence' approach. Moreover, we take account of the 'home country bias' of domestic inventors through counting 'patent families'. The results of our study reveal that Japan is particularly prominent in very few areas such as solar PV technologies by comparing with US or Germany, who are the real world champions in the EST realm.

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The Competitive Advantage on the Product and Service System : A Case Study about the Business of Electrically Operated Adjustable Bed for Home Use under the Public Nursing Care Insurance System in Japan

Noriyuki SHIKATA, Kiminori GEMBA, Keisuke UENISHI

Article type: Article
2012 Volume 26 Issue 3_4 Pages 209-219
Published: December 20, 2012
Released on J-STAGE: October 21, 2017

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.20801/jsrpim.26.3_4_209

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Businesses that combine service with products are recognized as a solution for commoditization. In such businesses, products and services should be designed in order to maximize their efficiency. However, many previous studies have shown that business processes maximize the performance by adding complementary services to existing products. This paper analyzed a case study on the rental business of electrically operated, adjustable beds for home use under the public nursing care insurance system in Japan. It was confirmed that the servitized company that both produced and distributed products maximized their performance by innovating and developing new products themselves, although the performance of the products was not always high. It was confirmed that the company determined the needs of the customers through the distribution service, which enabled them to swiftly develop new products by adopting modular architecture.

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