The purpose of this study is to construct a hypotheses of corporate venturing (CV), on the scope of the theory in Japan, and about the direction of Japanese companies’ practice. Therefore, we proposed a matrix utilizing the CV form (internal, cooperative, and external) on the vertical axis and the theoretical domain of corporate entrepreneurship (CE) (organization, strategic renewal, and innovation) on the horizontal axis, in an attempt to visualize the scope of the theory and practice. In this study, as a research method, a comparative case study is conducted for three Japanese companies with different business types and backgrounds. The conclusions drawn from this study include the following three points. First, the direction of CV theory and practice in Japan can be grasped more clearly by using a two by two matrix with the CV form (internal and external) and the theoretical domain of CE (strategic renewal and innovation). Second, the practice of CV in Japan is evolving from the internal CV area into two other areas: the “external / strategic renewal” area and the “external / innovation” area. Third, by combining innovation and financial research, CVs other than “internal / strategic renewal” in Japan can be explained more clearly.

View full abstract

This paper takes up data from a Japanese company with over 1,000 employees. We conduct a complete survey using an annual questionnaire and interviews with executives over a 12-year period from FY 2004 to FY 2015 with a large reorganization. The benefits of long-term fixed-point observations of perspective index are summarized as follows: (a) We can easily check for spurious correlations. (b) Changes in time series clarify the linkage between variables and reveal variables that are not explanatory variables. (c) The causal relationship appears only when the organization is greatly shaken and many variables change. (d) Even accidental events can be treated as social experiments. (e) In essence, there is an effect like the cohort effect that cannot be clarified without long-term fixed-point observation. However, if we do not devise a way to express fixed-point observational survey data in time series, no matter how much data is accumulated, it only means increasing the sample size in cross-sectional surveys.

View full abstract

Whereas recent entrepreneurship studies have tended to theorize an entrepreneur as an opportunistic actor who makes use of symbols and rhetoric to mobilize resources, this study aims to explore his or her political/moral practices which have been largely ignored in existing literatures. Relying on Foucault's thought of power, knowledge, and self and his view of ‘Parrhesia’ (Foucault, 2001), this study conceptualizes an entrepreneur as the parrhesiastes who takes risk and speaks the truth with courage under the challenge of launching new business. In order to enrich such understandings, this study introduces Ogura Masao as an exemplar of parrhesiastes in entrepreneurship. It shows two cases of his practice, the creation of the first private door-to-door parcel delivery service in Japan and the social enterprise for disable workers. These cases illustrate the characters of an entrepreneur as parrhesiastes and ‘the entrepreneurial truth-game’ between an entrepreneur and stakeholders which had contributed to driving innovations. The view of Parrhesia leads us to paying further attention to the role of the researchers' own reflection on themselves in order to see the research object as subjective entity.

View full abstract