Scholars in the fields of management and economics note the importance of gaining users and achieving network effects in online C2C platforms (OCP). Although the extant literature stresses the importance of network effects and the “quantity” of users, another important factor in OCP—the “quality” of users—is often ignored. Poor quality users harm the platform's reputation; their presence makes potential users hesitant to join it. Thus, we thus build a framework for managing users' quality in OCP, and, then, analyze how managing users' quality affects trust in C2C platforms and the transaction intention of users.

 We build a framework for analyzing users' quality with two pairs of influential factors: ex-ante and ex-post, and top and bottom users. These two pairs lead to four quadrants. Quadrant 1 has ex-ante and bottom users; it signifies platform firms' behavior to restrict bad users from joining by ex-ante screening (entrance fees or some qualifications). Quadrant 2, which is ex-ante and top, signifies how platform firms attract superstars. Quadrant 3 is ex-post and top and signifies how platform firms educate and finally convert normal users to loyal ones. Quadrant 4—ex-post and bottom users—signifies how platform firms find users that satisfy their criteria; this helps to exclude the bad users already present on the platform.

 To analyze this framework, the present study analyzes data obtained from OCP users of Mercari and Airbnb by distributing 461 questionnaires (Mercari n=242, Airbnb n=219) through a research company.

 We find that: (1) controlling bottom users (limited participation) increases trust in C2C platforms, and (2) controlling top users (favorable treatment for high quality users) increases the transaction intention of users. This paper highlights the issue of users' quality in OCP by building a framework for managing it—something prior research neglected by focusing on network effects.

 This paper explores the causes of key personnel turnover in acquired firms from an analysis of post-acquisition structural change in the newly combined firms. Strategic and technological capabilities in acquired firms are likely to be embedded in the knowledge of senior managers and key employees. Thus, the retention of human capital has been recognized as an important antecedent of a successful acquisition. Existing research on the influential factors in the turnover mainly focuses on the transaction type and organizational relationship at the time the acquisition completed. However, the effect of dynamic structural change after acquisition has not been fully understood. It is well known that acquirers continuously change the structure of the target firm after acquisition according to their strategies and policies. We can predict that such a post-acquisition change can be an important background for their decision to remain with or leave the organization. In this sense, the mechanism of turnover needs to be understood based on not only the characteristics of the organization and acquisitions, but a lso the integration process.

 We conducted a series of interviews with managers in six acquisitions that aimed at obtaining new technology. Our case analysis indicated that a post-acquisition approach of keeping an acquired firm as a subsidiary unit rather than integrating it into the acquirer’s organization is not necessarily effective for retention of key human resources. This study found that if an acquirer implemented synergy realization with target assets and human resource while maintaining it as a subsidiary, the imbalance for key managers occurs between their position and authority in the unit. Finally, the imbalance resulted in their leaving the firm.

 How does process innovation relate to new product development? The purpose of this paper is to find a provisional answer to this question from a detailed case study on the development process of a specialty chemical. In general, new product development is regarded as synonymous with product innovation. In addition, product innovation and process innovation are supposedly related to each other but clearly distinguished. Typically, these ideas are presuppositions of the famous Abernathy and Utterback (A-U) model of innovation. However, several studies have asserted that they do not hold in the area of specialty chemicals. This paper confirms the close relationship between new product development and process innovation in specialty chemicals with a detailed case study of resin P, developed by a Japanese company.

 This paper analyzes the development process of resin P through the MAIS approach, which focuses on the interactions among material entities (M), actors (A), and institutional/structural factors (I/S) related to the process of new product development. The case analysis clarifies how various material entities, actors, and institutional/structural factors interact with one another and shows that process innovation is indispensable for the development of the new specialty chemical. It also reveals that individual actors such as a researcher who continued experiments under objections, organizational actors such as product development sectors and process development sectors that collaborated for the development of the new chemical, material entities such as the solvent, and institutional/structural factors such as cost estimation, environmental regulation, and corporate customers’ approval were all related to the development of the product. The result also shows the effectiveness of the MAIS approach as an analytical m ethod for innovation processes.

 We explore the interdependent location choice behavior of Japanese auto parts firms in China at both the industry level and the product level. The international business literature has shown that foreign entrants prefer locations near other firms, particularly other firms from the same country or other firms from the same industry.

 We test several hypotheses using a sample of 279 manufacturing plant entries into China by Japanese auto parts manufacturers between 1989 and 2005. First, the results show that Japanese auto parts firms are more likely to prefer locations near other Japanese firms in the same industry for subsequent entries into any region in China rather than for their first entry. Conversely, they are more likely to prefer locations near other Japanese firms that produce the same category of products for their first entry into any region in China rather than for subsequent entries. These findings are inconsistent with those of previous studies, which argue that FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) agglomerations no longer have an impact on location choices for subsequent entries by firms in a given industry. Our results suggest that there is a time lag between the effects at the industry level and those at the product level.

 Secondary, the results show that Japanese auto parts firms are more likely to prefer locations near other firms in the same industry for entries that involve JVs with Japanese trading companies. These findings suggest that the roles played by Japanese trading companies include not only reducing information asymmetries but also integrating business groups.

 Researchers in change studies have been interested in the causes of change, and some scholars have paid more attention to the effect of previous change on further change. Existing studies have shown that previous change of a given type increases the probability of further similar change. This view, called the momentum hypothesis, has been dominant in prior studies. Based on the research on organizational routines, this view emphasizes that previous change allows organizations to create change routines and that the routinization of a given type of change increases organizational inertia and leads to similar subsequent change. However, a recent study challenged this view and provided an alternative hypothesis that the prior change of a given type decreases the likelihood of further similar change, known as deceleration. This recent study pointed out that the scholars of the momentum hypothesis tend to ignore the fact that previous change improves change routines. Based on behavioral theory, the study argued that by using refined change routines, organizations are likely to satisfy their outcome and reduce the need for further change. In summary, previous research on change studies has provided two contradictory hypotheses; however, there is little research to resolve this contradiction. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine existing studies critically and to reconcile this contradiction.

 Transactive memory systems (TMSs) are known to play a role in determining team performance by assigning each team member with tasks most relevant to his or her skills and coordinating members’ expertise. However, because not much is known about the negative and organizational factors of TMSs, this study examined the relationship between TMSs and organizational climates under pressure as the negative factor. Furthermore, this study investigates how certain factors mitigate negative effects on TMSs. Gender diversity is examined as an important aspect of the relationship because TMSs rely upon the cooperative division of cognitive labor in teams, and team diversity facilitates information sharing in groups. Thus, one purpose of this research is to examine how organizational climates under pressure and gender diversity influence TMSs. Another purpose is to examine how TMSs impact team performance. To achieve these purposes, data were collected from 25 teams of a Japan pharmaceutical company, including 183 followers and managers. The study yielded three major results: (1) High-pressure organizational climates were negatively related to TMSs. (2) Gender diversity moderated the relationships between high-pressure organizational climates and TMSs. The negative relationship between organizational climates under pressure and TMSs weakens as gender diversity increases, indicating that gender diversity reduces the negative effect of organizational climate under pressure on TMSs. (3) TMSs have a positive impact on team performance. The findings of this study suggest that (1) examining organizational climates under pressure as a negative factor is important in understanding TMSs’ development and (2) gender diversity is a factor that mitigates the negative effects.