This conceptual article aims to reintegrate existing path theories meta-theoretically, furthermore proposing an alternative theory termed ‘Dialectical Path Analysis.’ In existing path studies, determinist path dependence and voluntarist path creation meta-theoretically constitute an unhappy dualism. This article reintegrates the two existing path theories based on analytical dualism, a meta-theoretical concept of human nature of critical realism. From analytical dualism, the path formation process is not formed by completely alienating self-reinforcing mechanisms, nor do voluntarist actors create it from nothing. It is continuously reproduced or transformed by the dialectic interplay between existing social, economic, cultural, and material structures and the emergent properties of human agencies representing various backdrops. This article underscores not only the implication of comprehensive and deepening consideration of social phenomena, including management, economy, and industry, but also the importance for scholars themselves to embrace a reflexive and dialectical epistemology.

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This study clarifies the forms of management and support available for people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from the perspective of organizational socialization through interviews conducted in satellite offices for the employment of disabled people in Japan. The employment of disabled people is a significant topic, and people with ADHD and ASD are expected to be active in the workforce. Therefore, satellite offices for the employment of disabled people have attracted attention in Japan in recent years. This study provides some implications. First, it expands the concept of realistic job preview as experience-based way from a perspective of cognitive diversity. Second, it defines a new concept, work anchor, which is a value that represents the underlying source of motivation and positive meaning in work. Third, it points out an assumption that organizational socialization is irreversible, and the possibility of the backlash of organizational socialization.

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The shift from an exclusive reliance on systematic learning to experiential learning has gained prominence in Japanese university education. This study examines problem-based learning (PBL) and its role in university management education, including its historical context and distinctive characteristics. Amid these transformative shifts, it is essential to understand the COVID-19 pandemic’s impacts, which compelled a transition from face-to-face to distance learning, on the efficacy of PBL education. This study investigates the nuances of students’ learning experiences pre- and post-pandemic, shedding light on the evolving dynamics of education. Additionally, it examines the differences in learning effects between online and face-to-face PBL programs and underlines the challenges and potential of remote PBL instruction by focusing on industry-academia collaboration courses offered in first-year education at universities. It provides insights into the future of university education in an increasingly digital world while offering a comprehensive overview of PBL's potential within this changing educational landscape.

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As shown by the discussion on strategy as practice in recent years, if it is assumed that the strategy does NOT identify “a reification category” or “organization has,” there is the difference with the local institutional rules in that the subject has been assumed, and it is the chance of organizing a strategy for the institution is changed. Through this process, it is possible to emancipate from the effectiveness and universal of existing strategy theory. Therefore, in this paper, we examine the history of the strategy theory and the development of existing research, especially the process school and content school. As a rationality bias exists in strategy theory, consequently, it separates from strategy practice and the practice of strategy theory by the researcher is constructed. In addition, we discuss two theoretical difficulties when the strategy is discussed regarding how the person concerned with the firm strategy practice can be described, and, explain the possibility of using the strategy as leverage of the local institution.

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Despite decades of research, most research investigating issues concerning staff recruitment and retention in the family firm setting tends to concentrate on non-family employees. Relatively little attention has been paid to family members of the owner(s) of the firm as well as the non-core family employees. This trend is also manifest in Chinese family business research. The article seeks to shed light on issues associated with family employees, in particular the non-core family employees, regarding the reasons why they joined their family firm and why they will remain in the firm through the lens of a combination of two theoretical perspectives, namely, the stewardship theory and socioemotional wealth theory. A qualitative research approach is adopted to illustrate the phenomenon in-depth. A semi-structured interview is utilised as a means of data collection. Our main findings indicate that the reasons for family members to join and remain in the family firm are affected by a number of factors, such as in what way they perceive the future of the business and their personal career development in the company, their emotional ties with the owners’ family, and the practices or norms regarding the extent to which and how family members should be involved in the business.

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In this article, we explore how management educators can design courses that enable their students to link their classroom learning to real business environments. We focus on a reflective narrative-based storytelling process in which students make sense of management knowledge from their Japanese undergraduate seminar courses, called “zemi.” It is a learning environment as well as a community where students experience “here-now” cases on an ongoing basis. This research collected narratives from students in a zemi facilitated by the second author. We analyze the students’ reflective narratives on learning from their experiences and demonstrate that their sensemaking processes are situated in their learning relations. Our findings show that when the learning process is linked closely to one’s self-exploration and relational maturity, the students can make broader interpretations of knowledge. Specifically, they become able to make sense of management knowledge as relational achievement.

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Following the earthquake-triggered nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011, local hospitals outside the evacuation zone remained functional, but some of the employees were temporarily absent. This study aims to elucidate long-term workplace experiences based on work-attendance decisions among nurses working under conditions of uncertainty in hospitals operating outside, yet near, the former evacuation zone at the time. Twenty-seven nurses (including those who were temporarily absent) from seven hospitals were interviewed. The data were analyzed using the grounded theory method. We placed the workplace experiences of nurses into two core categories: “repeatedly choosing whether to attend work or not regardless of one’s emotions” and “going through parallel inconsistencies in the functioning workplace.” Our findings demonstrated the lasting impact of work-attendance decisions on nurses’ workplace experiences after the disaster. The findings could be useful in understanding hospital nurses who work under conditions of continuous uncertainty.

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Post-disaster tourism is an important reconstruction strategy for communities affected by natural disasters. In shrinking rural communities that also experience depopulation and aging as general trends, the need to develop proactive resilient practices for disaster management and sustainable development is a pressing requirement. Our longitudinal, multi-method study carried out in a Japanese rural coastal town affected by the 2011 Tsunami sheds light on the attributes and mechanisms by which a post-disaster education tourism initiative which was led and co-delivered by the community in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders enhanced community resilience and led to sustainable practices of post-disaster reconstruction. We provide empirical insights into how community resilience and sustainable tourism development were achieved through the careful development and balancing of economic, social and environmental capital. Our study contributes to existing debates regarding the relationship between community resilience and sustainability in the tourism field by illustrating how community resilience and sustainability are mutually re-enforcing dimensions which can be achieved via post-disaster education tourism.

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Research conducted into the areas of guanxi and family business has lasted for decades. Nevertheless, little research has been carried out to combine the two areas. Since the behaviour of family firms has been labelled as more emotional when compared to nonfamily businesses, it is assumable that guanxi, which is also closely associated with human emotions, should be dealt with differently in the context of family businesses. By adopting a case study method, this study investigates guanxi in four large, Taiwanese-owned, multinational Chinese family businesses in order to elucidate whether or not quanxi has altered over time in the Chinese family business setting as formal institutions have become more developed. Our findings reveal that, in general, very few changes have indeed occurred to guanxi in the family firms we studied as formal institutions have become more developed.

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In the Japanese IT industry, there is a marked shortage of IT human resources due to the expansion of IT utilization and e-business, the aging of system engineers, deteriorating working conditions, difficulties in technology succession, and the diversification and sophistication of technology acquisition. The supply of IT human resources is continually unable to keep up with the ever-increasing demand, it is becoming difficult to secure IT human resources year by year, and the shortage is expected to continue in the future. In Japanese information system development, overseas IT human resources, such as those obtained through offshore development, are actively utilized to make up for the IT human resource shortage. Recently, a new offshore development business model has been developed, in which foreign engineers who wish to work for Japanese IT companies come to Japan to develop information systems, through international cooperation between Japan and developing countries; and a win-win relationship has been established in offshore development involving international cooperation, between Japan and neighboring South Korea and Least Developed Countries (LDCs). In this study, offshore development involving international cooperation is defined as a development method involving on-site service in offshore development outsourced to overseas, or offshore development utilizing foreigners. After a general examination of the concept, we consider the current state and issues regarding offshore development involving international cooperation between Japan, Nepal, and South Korea.

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The purpose of this paper is to undertake an in-depth examination of the building and collapse, as well as the subsequent rebuilding of a place brand using the case of Okinawa Prefecture and its health food industry. 　We review place brand studies, clarify their characteristics, and explain their special nature. Furthermore, we described the activities for justifiably acquiring a place brand and the loss of that justification, and rebuilding the brand by implementing various policies as alternatives. We use the analysis (Grand et al., 2004) to analyse the brand evolution using industry annual reports, various data from the Okinawa Prefectural Government (OPG) and interviews with representatives of the OPG. This paper shows that we must examine the place brand, where place dependence is high and possibility for relocation is low, from a new perspective. Simultaneously, we have shown that maintaining and repairing a place brand, in the face of collapse, can have practical implications as well.

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Previous studies suggest that humans have significantly upset the balance between nature and society and that people should realize the impact of their activities on nature given the repercussions of global warming for the world at large. Simultaneously, business organizations are under increasing pressure to proactively contribute to a sustainable model that minimizes harm to the world. This study examines innovative green technologies that have emerged in response to this social demand. It applies the causal texture model and examines green technology emergence using discourses from Japanese firms. It further focuses on the Japanese cultural values of mittomonai and mottainai (both relating to the avoidance of undesirable actions) and their role in the learning process of collective causal beliefs. Finally, we present an amended causal texture model to more positively account for the natural environment and to clarify the interdependence between organizations and the environment.

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I am pleased to take up the invitation to prepare a brief essay that speaks to ‘the importance of studying research methodology’. First, I set out what I mean by methodology, arguing that its sense is contingent upon the tradition in which it is framed. Second, I consider how methodology is framed within the tradition of critical social science. And finally I consider how such a framing is applied by taking up the example of Honneth’s (2004) inquiry into the phenomenon of inner emptiness and depression in modern society.

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This paper reviews key features of 'critical psychology' concerning the power psychological knowledge has over other forms of explanation in contemporary culture, and shows their relevance to contributions by Burman, Muramoto and Yatsuzuka. The role of psychoanalysis in relation to qualitative research in psychology historically and currently is emphasised in the course of this commentary. I focus on the way that concepts from Lacanian psychoanalysis - in particular, Lacan's account of 'Symbolic', 'Imaginary' and 'Real' domains of human experience - can enrich a critical psychological account.

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In recent years, an increasing number of immigrants, together with greater pressure on the state from both outside and within to recognise the diversity of its society, have caused a shift in public and academic attention from the idea of Japan as an ethnically homogenous nation to the concept of a 'multicultural Japan'. This paper explores the emergence of the notion of 'multicultural coexistence' and focuses on the assimilation of foreigners in Japan. In the foreground of this endeavour, the country's Korean minority has struggled to be included in Japanese society through different types of civic groups and neighbourhood associations. A machizukuri process in Higashi Kujo (an area around Kujo Street) in the city of Kyoto, as well as the Madang Festival, are presented along with the details of their organization, revealing the multiple meanings of this process and festival, respectively. Through a close look at these cases, the article shows how different groups of people work together to make their society a shared and diverse community.

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