This paper describes robot innovation in the field of manufacturing and our daily life realized by human co-operative robot (Co-bot). Firstly, the paper introduces the 1) “Robot Revolution” proposed by Japanese government. As a key component to realize the revolution, the paper also introduces 2) the history of the Co-robot in terms of widening the robot scope from individual robot to social robot. Secondly, the paper discusses the revolution in factories and at home by showing a) the image of new work- and life-style with robots, b) the problems to be solved and c) solutions. Finally, the paper concludes that the forming the community composed of not only robot hardware& software companies but also service providers and educational/public relation organizations is essential.

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Panasonic’s robot new business development group has challenged to develop some new products for hospital and eventually succeeded to launch innovative products to fit to hospital’s ‘Wants.’ Main strategy for needs-finding in hospital was to apply the know-how to improve productivity in working places of Panasonic as a manufacturing company such as problem breaking down from view of hospital management or observation per immersion into hospital’s working places.

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This paper introduces R&D activities in IoT (Internet of Things) focusing on the fusion of the Internet and robotics. The ubiquitous networked robotics (UNR) combining multiple robots with sensor networks, smartphones, wheelchairs, etc. is described. It includes a few standardizations of the UNR platform allowing to bridge robot components and service applications. The “Innovate!Osaka” for promoting the global innovation is also introduced.

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Growing public attention has been focused on the Environmental Reports that different companies have been disclosed. Their reports usually provide the stakeholders with the information about the firms’ efforts for environmental concerns. Likewise, they also usually elaborate on various outputs of their activities for the sustainability of environment. The goal of this study is to find and investigate the subjective and objective perspective from the words of environmental reports used in the companies and industries. Results of this research are we found 1) the characteristic and trends of the output nouns through a few aspects, 2) aging tendencies from the factor scores depended on the industries, 3) the classification of the direction in the companies’ environmental aspect, and so on.

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Modern firms are reconsidering the 20th century model of mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal, and in the midst of the need to adopt a sustainable model of economic growth that minimizes harm to the world. In response to such a social order, this paper examines the relationships between the environmental and economic performances of the construction industry in the Shikoku region. We discuss alternative functional relationships between them through the theory of organizational capabilities. Based on the findings of an empirical study, we propose the introduction of a funnel role of organizational capabilities within the relationship between environmental and economic variables, taking a different viewpoint from the Porter hypothesis. Finally, our study presents a tentative conclusion clarifying a part of the causation, and proposes a model to understand the interdependence between sustainable strategy and organizational capability.

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This is an activity report of the Association of Behavioral Economics and Finance (ABEF). The ABEF was established to encourage research into behavioral economics and behavioral finance in Japan and provide a forum of interaction for interested scholars, businesspersons and students in 2007. The ABEF has been a member for the Transdisciplinary Federation of Science and Technology (TRAFT) since 2010.

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