The keiretsu, or long-term stable business network that exists between Toyota and its suppliers, seems to demonstrate exceptional resilience in the face of natural disasters. Toyota shares production knowledge among the firms in its keiretsu through long-term kaizen-based inter-company learning activities (jishuken). In this regard, we have confirmed that (A) in times of normal operations, jishuken adopt a flat structure of interpersonal connections among firms that facilitates mutual trust. From case studies, we also found that (B) in times of disaster response, the structure “switches” to a hierarchical one with a clearly delineated leadership to bring knowledge and human resources into play.
{"title":"Why can Toyota's keiretsu recover from earthquakes quickly?","authors":"Shumpei Iwao, Yumi Kato","doi":"10.7880/abas.0191022a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/abas.0191022a","url":null,"abstract":"The keiretsu, or long-term stable business network that exists between Toyota and its suppliers, seems to demonstrate exceptional resilience in the face of natural disasters. Toyota shares production knowledge among the firms in its keiretsu through long-term kaizen-based inter-company learning activities (jishuken). In this regard, we have confirmed that (A) in times of normal operations, jishuken adopt a flat structure of interpersonal connections among firms that facilitates mutual trust. From case studies, we also found that (B) in times of disaster response, the structure “switches” to a hierarchical one with a clearly delineated leadership to bring knowledge and human resources into play.","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"13 1","pages":"251-262"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-12-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89339875","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
There are fundamental differences between research into WOM (word-of-mouth), in which communication occurs face-to-face, and one into eWOM (electric word-of-mouth), which occurs over the Internet between strangers. In specifically looking at motivational factors, this study reveals significant differences in that while traditional WOM studies mainly discuss recipient motives, eWOM studies (a) mainly discuss sender motives and (b) permit the inclusion of economic motives.
{"title":"The scope of motivation studies for (e)word-of-mouth","authors":"Y. Kuwashima","doi":"10.7880/abas.0190913a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/abas.0190913a","url":null,"abstract":"There are fundamental differences between research into WOM (word-of-mouth), in which communication occurs face-to-face, and one into eWOM (electric word-of-mouth), which occurs over the Internet between strangers. In specifically looking at motivational factors, this study reveals significant differences in that while traditional WOM studies mainly discuss recipient motives, eWOM studies (a) mainly discuss sender motives and (b) permit the inclusion of economic motives.","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"50 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75458339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Retail prices must be kept low in order to increase the diffusion of home video game hardware. In the 1980s and 1990s, when high-performance semiconductor prices were high, the performance of the hardware was limited. Owing to hardware restrictions, Japanese video game hardware developers had to improve their ability to increase the entertainment offered by their hardware. By the 2000s, home video game hardware that was the same spec as cutting-edge PC hardware came onto the market. As a result, consumers in the European and North American markets began to demand home video game software that could take advantage of high-performance hardware. This is when European and North American home video game developers began to flourish, as their experience with video game development on the PC meant that they had the ability to develop games that took advantage of high-level hardware functionality. At the same time, Japanese home video game developers were struggling in the global market, including North America, because the development organization and capabilities that they had built before 2000 acted as core rigidity.
{"title":"The core rigidity of Japanese home video game companies","authors":"Takeaki Wada","doi":"10.7880/abas.0190921a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/abas.0190921a","url":null,"abstract":"Retail prices must be kept low in order to increase the diffusion of home video game hardware. In the 1980s and 1990s, when high-performance semiconductor prices were high, the performance of the hardware was limited. Owing to hardware restrictions, Japanese video game hardware developers had to improve their ability to increase the entertainment offered by their hardware. By the 2000s, home video game hardware that was the same spec as cutting-edge PC hardware came onto the market. As a result, consumers in the European and North American markets began to demand home video game software that could take advantage of high-performance hardware. This is when European and North American home video game developers began to flourish, as their experience with video game development on the PC meant that they had the ability to develop games that took advantage of high-level hardware functionality. At the same time, Japanese home video game developers were struggling in the global market, including North America, because the development organization and capabilities that they had built before 2000 acted as core rigidity.","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"44 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76174001","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Papers on operations management in major journals have studied (1) relationships between the level of alignment in business and manufacturing strategies, practice realization, and performance; (2) the role of plants in global production networks; and (3) the reconciling of business and manufacturing strategies by operational executives. However, while these studies have positioned the role of plants as a strategic weapon in firms, their perspective is that the role of plants is imparted by headquarters or business units. Actually, the phenomenon which Japanese domestic plants have continued to work on various issues in an advanced manner from a global view went beyond this scope. There is a need for exploratory research from the perspective of plants as to the relationship between the role of plants and the strategic behavior of factory managers in continuing to grow while trying to survive in challenging environments and organizational capabilities built in plants.
{"title":"Factory strategy","authors":"Mitsuhiro Fukuzawa","doi":"10.7880/abas.0190731a","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/abas.0190731a","url":null,"abstract":"Papers on operations management in major journals have studied (1) relationships between the level of alignment in business and manufacturing strategies, practice realization, and performance; (2) the role of plants in global production networks; and (3) the reconciling of business and manufacturing strategies by operational executives. However, while these studies have positioned the role of plants as a strategic weapon in firms, their perspective is that the role of plants is imparted by headquarters or business units. Actually, the phenomenon which Japanese domestic plants have continued to work on various issues in an advanced manner from a global view went beyond this scope. There is a need for exploratory research from the perspective of plants as to the relationship between the role of plants and the strategic behavior of factory managers in continuing to grow while trying to survive in challenging environments and organizational capabilities built in plants.","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"4648 3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-10-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"89739532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Management of exhaustion in continuous product development","authors":"Wei Huang","doi":"10.7880/ABAS.0190621A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/ABAS.0190621A","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"39 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86138051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Product identity leads to organizational activation in crisis","authors":"Ayako Aizawa","doi":"10.7880/ABAS.0190725A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/ABAS.0190725A","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"102 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-08-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78097516","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Owning a company","authors":"N. Takahashi","doi":"10.7880/ABAS.0190422A","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7880/ABAS.0190422A","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":52658,"journal":{"name":"Annals of Business Administrative Science","volume":"68 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2019-06-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80333258","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}