The role of entrepreneurs is becoming increasingly important in Japanese industry and society. This role involves realization of innovations that broadly bring about more advanced lifestyles and production. The challenges of entrepreneurial marketing research are multilayered. In this special feature issue, we focus on a wide range of marketing phases to invigorate the activities of entrepreneurs responsible for innovation in a company or society. Innovation can broadly be divided into technology innovation, reliant on technological novelty; and value innovation, reliant on market novelty. The latter arises from the market and is crucial for marketing. We lack a sufficient understanding of the motivations and abilities entrepreneurs require to drive value innovations, and how to interact with the environment to manifest these individual motivations and abilities for value innovations. This special issue aims to advance these explorations in order to enhance value innovations.

This is a conceptual study that suggests the importance of “entrepreneurial symbolic management” in enhancing the business growth potential of ventures. Symbolic management is a means of effectively communicating the significance of a venture’s new business in a complex market environment by increasing its identifiability, while inducing stakeholders to associate symbols with their own meanings while appealing to their imagination. To date, studies have pointed out the importance of symbolic management, but there is little evidence that it is an effective strategy for venture business growth. In addition, the concept of symbolic management is complicated by similar arguments that exist in proximity, such as the identity argument and the brand argument, and researchers have not reached a consensus on a unified view of the concept. This study conceptually suggests that ventures can survive the fierce market environment and raise their own viability by appropriately practicing symbolic management.

This study is grounded in an examination of a prominent electrical appliance corporation, with the aim of proposing an innovative framework in which to evaluate integration of distinct decision-making logics, namely Causation and Effectuation, within Business Model Innovation (BMI) in large-scale enterprises. Specifically, our research reveals the enduring positive effects resulting from combination of these two logics, underscoring the critical importance of dissociating effectuation practices from short-term causation evaluation criteria. Following a sequence of business development procedures, the intrapreneur disengages from the organization, which has relatively de-emphasized effectuating processes, and transitions to a novel intra-organization characterized by a BMI orientation. Consequently, the holistic system operates seamlessly. We posit that these findings contribute a novel perspective to scholarly investigations of the innovation processes in enterprises that exhibit a substantial departure from established business paradigms. Furthermore, our insights extend into the domain of effectuation research, enriching the existing academic discourse.

Chalmers University of Technology, located in Gothenburg, Sweden’s industrial center, is known as an entrepreneurial university. Leveraging regional technology seeds and business resources, Chalmers has spawned numerous high-survival, prominent spin-offs. This paper discusses the unique entrepreneurial ecosystem in the local city, distinct from Silicon Valley, using examples of “surrogate” and “non-surrogate” startups. In the “surrogate” model, typically seen among master’s level entrepreneurship program participants, student teams aim to commercialize sourced internal and external technology seeds into new products and services. In the “non-surrogate” model, postdoctoral researchers and scientists pursue business opportunities commercializing their own intellectual property. The university provides investments and incubators, while local angels, company executives and successful alumni serve as mentors to support young founders, establishing an ecosystem benefiting both startup types. With minimal foreign VC funds, these lean startups practice disciplined fundraising and conserve managerial resources. As exemplified by two life science ventures, they enlist medical specialists as technical advisors to promote novel therapies, while also licensing technologies and pursuing custom manufacturing for revenue diversification.

This study examines the process of formation of entrepreneurial communities in Fukuoka City as a leading-edge case study of a regional core city. We collected literature from the 1980s to the present, identified organizations and individuals important in supporting entrepreneurship in Fukuoka, conducted semi-structured interviews, and organized the data in chronological order. Entrepreneurial activities in Fukuoka were developed through both administrative support and through industrial promotion and a venture support infrastructure that has been developed by Fukuoka Prefecture since the 1980s. “Democratization of entrepreneurship” was realized in Fukuoka, where entrepreneurship became a familiar career option for everyone, with “boundary spanner” playing an important role by crossing boundaries between the public and private sectors, the prefecture and the city, and other entrepreneurial communities. The city’s “democratization of entrepreneurship” approach represents an option in a society in which entrepreneurship is inactive.

Counterfeit luxury goods refer to goods that closely resemble the original luxury goods, and consumers purchase these goods while being aware that they are counterfeits. To explain this consumer purchasing behavior, existing research has explored consumers’ motivations for purchase of counterfeit luxury goods. However, no study has thoroughly reviewed the latest trends in this field. Therefore, this paper selects the ten latest articles published in major academic journals in the field of marketing and organizes them from four perspectives: social, moral, cognitive, and online behavioral. The paper also identifies two future directions for research in this area: exploration of the impact of secondary markets and subscription services for luxury goods on counterfeit purchases, and exploration of the impact of the experiential value offered by luxury goods on counterfeit purchases.

Avoiding failures in the service delivery process is challenging, even for outstanding service companies. Service failure refers to the situation where the provided service falls short of customer expectations. Customer responses to such failures range from direct or indirect expression of dissatisfaction to negative word-of-mouth. These responses are collectively referred to as “customer complaining behavior”. With a focus on the cognition-emotion approach, this paper synthesizes two crucial bodies of prior literature on customer complaining behavior. The first concentrates on the conceptual development of this behavior, revealing its multifaceted nature. The second examines the antecedents of customer complaining behavior, considering cognitive, emotional, personality, and situational factors. By systematically organizing these bodies of prior research, this paper elucidates the theoretical advances in understanding customer complaining behavior and identifies research gaps. In particular, the paper proposes three directions for future research to advance scholarly inquiry and deepen understanding of the complexity of customer complaining behavior in service environments.

Since internal marketing (IM) treats employees as customers, the focus has naturally been on internal measures. However, consumer-oriented advertising provides an opportunity for employees to recognize the social impact of their work and change their mindset. Such activities can be seen in business, but knowledge based on academic research is scarce. Therefore, this study examined the effects on job satisfaction and turnover intention by targeting ten factors, including advertising and nine factors covered in existing IM literature (capability acquisition, wages, work-life balance, relationship with superiors, diversity of human resources, office facilities, cafeteria, advanced technology, and purpose). An online survey of 5,000 full-time employees across ten industries (automotives, electronics, medical equipment, food, real estate, information technology, finance, retail, service, and government) was conducted in Japan. Advertisement had no effect on satisfaction, but had a significant positive effect on turnover intention. Furthermore, we found that the smaller the size of the company and the younger the employees, the more likely the employees are to change jobs. This result indicates the need to take care not to increase the desire to change jobs when promoting internal communication through advertisements.

Wondertrunk & Co., founded in 2016, is an inbound company with a mission to transform local regions in Japan into global travel destinations. Based on the difference between tourism marketing, which considers tourist destinations as products, and conventional marketing, this paper examines Wondertrunk & Co.’s approach in the context of tourism marketing. This approach targets wealthy Western travelers to fulfill the objectives of Japan’s tourism policy of “sustainable tourism,” “expansion of consumer spending,” and “promotion of regional tourism”. The analysis focuses on destination marketing campaign projects carried out in collaboration with the Japan Tourism Agency and local governments, as well as the tourism business tailored to wealthy Western travelers. This paper concludes that the key success factors are (1) comprehensive marketing analysis and STP strategy development, (2) relationship building with international travel agencies, and (3) customization of luxury tourism services.

Tatami is a traditional Japanese flooring. The industry has declined due to the westernization of housing. Generally, tatami stores operate by establishing their business with deep roots in the local community. Their markets are geographically restricted because tatami cannot be supplied without skilled craftsmanship. Therefore, achieving economies of scale is challenging in this industry, and product differentiation is difficult. The tatami industry is a typical fragmented industry. The Kuboki tatami store sells coasters made of tatami mats for restaurants throughout Japan, and is expanding its business overseas. This paper examines new business ventures and overseas expansion of tatami stores, as well as the positive impact these ventures have had on the existing tatami mat business.