Pioneering of a new product category to enjoy the first-mover advantage is a critical issue for manufacturing firms. However, a firm cannot simply choose to be a pioneer. We investigated interactions among market actors and product development teams to discover the process of new category generation by using the social shaping of technology approach. In a case study, we examined the "healthy tea beverage" category, which was identified as a tea beverage approved as Food for Specified Health Uses, packaged in a 350-ml PET bottle and priced relatively higher than conventional tea beverages. To describe the case study, we collected data from interviews and published documents relevant to three product development cases: "Healthya Green Tea" by Kao, "Kuro Oolong Tea" by Suntry, and "Catechin Ryokucha" by Ito En. Through the case study, we identified three phases in the category generation process: shaping of products, shaping of an exampler, and shaping of a competitive market. In the shaping of products phase, product concept and design were shaped under the influence of shared structural factors, e.g., the health care movement. When Healthya Green Tea was launched, it became an exampler and urged products that followed it into the marketplace to share its characteristics, e.g., being packaged in a 350-ml PET bottle, by involving structural factors and material factors. After those products were launched, the competitive market was shaped through the interactions among market actors. In the case study, the shared characteristics of products were generated in the shaping of products phase, and these characteristics became triggers to shape a new category. A category and products sharing characteristics were mutually shaped by interaction among product development teams, market actors, structural factors, and material factors. These findings suggest that not only interactions among market actors after products are launched but also the product development process play important roles in category generation.

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This paper tries to clarify how to manage the innovation process so that a company can build up a continuous competitive advantage. There are three aspects to this issue: 1) how a company can manage not only one but two or more innovation processes; 2) how a company with a complex business structure demonstrates its organizational capability and promotes organizational learning in order to create continuous innovation; and 3) the role of senior and middle managers in committing to the innovation process. This paper focuses in particular on the relationship between the new projects for innovation and the existing businesses of a company. I presume that when a company develops new businesses or products, the new projects for innovation will have some type of relationship with its existing businesses. This is because firm-specific resources and organizational capability, which are the source of innovation, and continuous competitive advantage is the fruit that the company has attained through the operation of its existing businesses. Using this perspective, this paper discusses the innovation process of a company, both theoretically and empirically.

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This paper will analyze the mechanism by which organizational learning is induced through routine activities. As the approach to this analysis, we conducted a one-year interview-based survey of the corporate activities of sales divisions that have achieved good results. Based on previous research, we divided organizational routines into three models; "work routines," "administrative work routines," which correct and adjust the work routines through the planning and standardization of tasks and "strategic organizational routines" that have a competitive edge. Strategic organizational routines are composed of four steps, which include innovation, organizational learning, decision making and systems. These steps form the shape of an ascending spiral. Strategic organizational routines are believed to alternate between periods of stability and change. The results of the case studies imply the following two points. The first point is that a series of competencies was achieved through the standardization of decision making tasks and mutual connections among organizational members are created as a result of these competencies. The second point is that organizational learning was realized through the cross-divisional project teams that were established to review the routine activities. Through these processes, organizational routines that have a competitive edge were formed and underwent a series of changes. Organizational routines change through innovation and organizational learning. For these organizational routines to continue to change, the standardization of decision making procedures and systems, which are the "molds" for creating stability, is essential. Strategic organizational routines based on work routines and administrative work routines are thought to be these "molds."

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This paper explores a mechanism wherein a small firm achieves high performance in the long term. We focus on the competition process through R & D activities and the firm's conduct in the product market. In strategic management, many literatures have not sufficiently examined the argument on the dynamics of competition because they have discussed the relationship between each firm's positioning or resources and the competitive advantage at a certain point in time. However, firms can change the competitive environment and their market position through various business activities, and then, these changes have a great influence on each firm's resource accumulation and their usage of a resource. This paper discusses the mechanism of the growth of a firm under such dynamics. The case of R & D conducted for Prostaglandin in Ono Pharmaceutical Company was selected to investigate the process and mechanism for the achievement of high performance. In the 1960s〜70s, Prostaglandin was considered to be a biological substance that was expected to cure various diseases. Ono is a leader in R & D for Prostaglandin because of its quick and intensive approach toward investments in this field. The firm continued to sequentially introduce Prostaglandin for niche markets and enhance the resources pertaining to Prostaglandin. As a result, Ono has occupied a unique position in the industry and achieved high performance for thirty years. In conclusion, the mechanism wherein a small firm achieves high performance in the long term involves quick and intensive investments by the firm in a resource; then, the firm continues to sequentially introduce products for niche markets and enhance the resource. In doing so, the firm occupies a unique position in the market and achieves high performance.

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Katz and Allen (1982) found that the performance of R & D projects had peaked at 2 to 4 years of mean tenure of project team members, and declined significantly after the years. They considered that the phenomenon occurred because of the tendency of a project group of stable composition to believe it possesses a monopoly of knowledge of its fields, and named it "Not-Invented-Here (NIH) syndrome." As compared to the widely spread of this concept, significant faults existed in their empirical method has not adequately been recognized. In fact, we do not yet have absolute proofs of whether the NIH syndrome really exists or not. Confronting the difficulty of the method which Katz and Allen had taken, I put a high value on large quantity of patent data, and analyze it to reinterpret the NIH syndrome from an individual perspective. First, I create the concept of "co-inventive duration," which designates the average duration of maintaining relationships with the focal person's co-inventors, and use it to see if Katz and Allen (1982)'s empirical result (KA-test) can be confirmed. The results showed that inventors' performance on quantity basis peaked at 2 to 4 years of the co-inventive duration, which supported the KA-test, however, qualitative performance improved linearly with the co-inventive duration, which showed no support for the KA-test. Next, I took a field study to investigate backgrounds of the former results at a Japanese machinery firm. Inventors who worked for the firm were asked to rate their perceived existence of the NIH component and team building component-both were considered to be the causes of the KA-test. But correlation with the co-inventive duration did not reveal strong supports for these components. Then, I directly asked inventors who had relatively longer co-inventive duration about detailed relationship with each of their co-inventors, and found that they maintained relationships to fuse technical and customer information together. From these results, I concluded that the NIH syndrome might not exist in terms of qualitative performance.

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Since 2006 Renault has changed its strategy, when Carlos Ghosn became the CEO. The strategy, including five concrete plans, is very different compared with the past. This study objectively and subjectively concerns this strategic change. It is important to analyze both sides of strategic change. In this paper I use the theory of dominant logic and analogical inference framework about subjective side of corporate-level strategy. Carlos Ghosn, who had experienced the diversity of culture and the difficult situations of various factories, had used the analogical inference framework on the dominant logic to change the strategy. However his analogical inference had a few limitations for building a new logic.

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