Management of Technology and Innovation in Japan

Preface and Introduction IX
The book is organized in five parts, starting with a chapter on strategy, followed
by chapters on organization, processes, cultural aspects and implementation
We will briefly summarize the content of each chapter as follows:
Part I: Strategic Aspects
Sakakibara and Matsumoto address the issue of appropriating returns from innovation
activities. They show how engineering of the product architecture may lead to
inter-firm differences in appropriability and illustrate how Canon has been able to
frequently shift added value between its devices and consumables in the copier
and ink jet printer business. The authors suggest that Canon’s efforts for high appropriability
have a historical background and that flexible change in product architecture
is the key to its success.
Takeishi and Aoshima study Shimano, a manufacturer of bicycle components, and
show how Shimano has been able to perform well in an industry that is hit by recession
and in which most companies experience considerable difficulties. Looking
into its corporate history, the authors analyze how Shimano’s innovation and
component integration activities have allowed it to capture a position that may be
described as the “Intel of the bicycle industry”. Finally, the address the challenges
lying ahead of Shimano and comment on how innovation may continue to be a
driver of its corporate success.
Kusunoki investigates how innovations may overcome commoditization in an industry
and allow companies to regain customers’ willingness to pay. He stresses
that conventional thinking, explicitly or implicitly assuming that innovations are
dimensional phenomena, may be ineffective for creating differentiation and promoting
consumers’ willingness to pay. Moreover, he argues that innovations along
particular dimensions may do more harm than good for de-commoditization and
firms preoccupied with such “dimensional thinking” of innovation may be entrapped
even more into commoditization.
Tomita and Fujimoto stress the increasing sophistication and diversification of
customer needs. They show how companies are required to look beyond their customers,
who are often intermediate users and have to consider the needs of end users,
i.e. their customers’ customers. Analyzing the case of LUMIFLON, the authors
define the downstream of the value chain as a “customer system,” and argue
how an effective NPD pattern in a “customer system”-oriented manner should be
through designed.
Part II: Process Aspects
Harryson describes the origins of the know-who based innovation process, which
was born in Japan, but is increasingly applied throughout Asia. It aims at enhanced
speed of innovation and reduced R&D risk through new processes that are