When a company organization interprets sticky information in order to develop common understanding, what is the best form of interaction between members of the company? In what way does the degree of stickiness influence the relationship between interaction and interpretation? The purpose of this paper is to characterize the process by which a company organization manages sticky information from the above view points. This paper will focus on the cause-and-effect relationship between interaction and information interpretation. The following six hypotheses are proposed. Hypothesis 1: The more members interact actively between sections, the larger the improvement in information interpretation. Hypothesis 2: The more members interact actively within a section, the larger the improvement in information interpretation. Hypothesis 3: When members feel information stickiness to be strong, interaction between sections has a larger effect on the level of improvement of information interpretation. Hypothesis 4: When members feel information stickiness to be strong, interaction within a section has a larger effect on the level of improvement of information interpretation. Hypothesis 5: The more top management and members actively interact with each other, the greater the improvement in information interpretation. Hypothesis 6: when members feel information stickiness to be strong, interaction between top management and members has a larger effect on the level of improvement in information interpretation. To test these hypotheses, I demonstratively analyzed Company A, a small-sized manufacturer in a business-to-business market that manages sticky customer information, as evidenced by the fact that sales staff make up one third of all employees. The results were that hypotheses 2 and 5 were proved and hypothesis 1 was verified to a limited extent. On moderating effects only hypothesis 4 was proved. The reason that interaction between sections was limited can be attributed to the following factors. Interaction between sections incurs high costs and organizational routine is established according to company growth. Company A's structure of information interpretation is that top management has a good perception of the situation, enabling them to manipulate employees.

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Thepurpose of this study is to investigate the effect of organizational slack-an excess of resources of a firm-on R & D investment and environmental investment. We make two contributions in this paper. First, we consider two types of simultaneous corporate investments: in R & D and in environmental conservation. Although corporate managers consider various types of investments in their decision-making processes, previous studies focus on a single form of investment as their dependent variable for organizational slack. By considering two investments simultaneously, we can discuss the comparative importance of each investment. Moreover, we extend an existing discussion concerning the absolute amount of each investment. That is, organizational slack can reduce the absolute amount of corporate investment. Previous studies focusing on only one type of investment consider that organizational slack increases various corporate investments. However, by including two types of investment, we consider the possibility that a firm can increase R & D investment by using the resources originally allocated to environmental investment. This leads to a decrease in the amount of environmental investment. The second contribution of this study is an empirical investigation of the relationship between organizational slack and corporate investments. Most previous studies consider this relationship from a theoretical perspective, but do not examine it empirically. Thus, empirical studies are required in the area of organizational slack and corporate investments. Using seemingly unrelated regression with a data set of 3225 Japanese firms in 2005, we obtained the following results. First, the hypothesis that organizational slack increases the R & D investment ratio and decreases the environmental investment ratio is supported in both manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries. Second, however, the results differ between manufacturing and nonmanufacturing industries concerning the absolute amount of each investment. While manufacturing firms increase R & D investment using environmental investment resources, nonmanufacturing firms increase both R & D and environmental investment simultaneously. This may reflect a difference in corporate strategies between these two industries.

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The purpose of this paper is to present a "contestation model" that grasps innovation as the formation of the new social relationship. Based on the contestation model discussed in the case study, we do not need to separate out the innovator organizations and reproduction organizations beforehand. Further, given the premise of the existence of innovator organizations, nor is there a need to take linear theories that search for the technical and social conditions necessary for their survival. Amidst the unceasing process of contestation, individuals and organizations plan their survival by forging alliances with the necessary affected people sometimes as innovator organizations and sometimes as reproduction organizations. Through this explanatory diagram, we can rethink innovation as the formation of new social relationships by distancing ourselves from the pre-established harmony which was the cause of harsh criticism toward the evolutionary approach.

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The importance of employee development is increasing for establishing potential long-term competitiveness for firms. However, little is known about how a firm's investment in employee development, especially as perceived by employees, leads to an increase in employee work outcomes. We, therefore, highlight the concept of perceived investment in employee development (PIED), which can be defined as employees' belief that their organizations care about their well-being, career development, and personal growth by equipping them with new knowledge and skills. Specifically, drawing on social exchange theory and fit theory perspectives, we propose to examine the mediating role of person and environment (P-E) fit, such as person and organization (P-O) fit and person and job (P-J) fit, in how employees' perceptions of investment in employee development by organization leads to increased work outcomes, including job satisfaction, job involvement, and intent to stay. Additionally, we incorporated into the mediation process the moderating effects of career planning on the relationships between P-O and work outcomes and between P-J fit and work outcomes, as guided by a goal-setting theory. We tested the hypothesized mediational and moderational relationships using a sample of 144 Korean employees working for privately owned firms in Korea. Our empirical analyses generally supported the mediating effects of both P-O and P-J fit and the moderating effects of career planning in the process that relates PIED to improved employees' work outcomes, except for the mediating effects of P-E fit (i.e., P-O fit, P-J fit) on the relationship between PIED and employees' turnover intentions. We use the findings to discuss the role of P-E fit and individual career planning in the effectiveness of employee development practices that organizations offer. We also discuss the study's limitations and the direction of future studies.

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In this paper, I clarify how employees who interact with customers develop the skills to manage their emotions and to cope with their stress. Employees who interact with customers often feel stress in relationship with customers. Therefore, it is important that employees develop skills to manage their emotions and to cope with their stress. Nonetheless, previous studies pay little attention to how employees develop their skills in the firms. This paper focuses on the skill development in the claims service department in general insurance company. To collect the data, I conducted interviews with employees and participant observation of induction course of general insurance company X. I interviewed seventeen employees. The interviews with each participant lasted 30-70 minutes. These interviews were recorded and transcribed. The induction course ran for 7 days. I participated in the induction course in a similar way as inductees. From this study, it was found that the employees develop their skills with experience. The inductees feel stress frequently. With experience, however, the employees have got to be able to cope with their stress. In this study, I identified two sources of stress. One is lack of knowledge about operations, and another is interaction with emotional customers. The inexperienced employees feel stress because they tend to think they don't have enough knowledge to deal with customers in an appropriate manner. The employees get to be able to avoid this type of stress by gaining enough knowledge. Meanwhile, another type of stress is avoided by dealing with customers with a favorable balance between customer's point of view and firm's point of view. The employees developed enough skills to be able to avoid extreme stress in three or four years. They experienced interactions with a huge variety of customers during the period.

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Is it possible for a firm at a competitive disadvantage to recover its competitive advantage again? In the existing study, it is considered possible for a firm at a product development disadvantage to come back as long as it is superior in the business system. Then, is it possible for a firm to become competitive advantage again when it is behind both in the product development and in the business system? Based on a preposition set up by Kagono in 1999 and one by Kagono and Inoue in 2004, I have concluded a hypothesis that "A firm can recover its competitive advantage even from a disadvantaged position in product development and business system, as long as it can manage to reform its business system by making good use of the existing management resources, by creating a structure where such resources are well used and by improving the ability to utilize such resources." I am going to verify this hypothesis on Menicon's MELSPLAN which is a specific case where a business system has been successfully reformed at a certain level. Menicon has created a new business system, "MELSPLAN", by redefining its business so that it can recover its competitive advantage. Menicon has managed to turn its operation to surplus from deficit by generating member's fee by increasing the members, and as a result it became competitive again within a certain area. I prove that it is possible for a firm to recover its competitive advantage by differentiating itself from others by constructing new business system, even after its products and business system are fallen behind.

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