Takeo Kikkawa – författare

All over the world proactive public policy in business is now under siege. Economists and policy-makers claim that the era of `Big Government' is over. However, nobody denies the fact that government has historically played a critical role in modern economic development. Given the profound changes of public policy agendas, this is an appropriate time to review the dynamic interaction between government policies and industrial developments from an international and historical perspective. Focusing on the so-called `Golden Age of Capitalism' the 1950s and 1960s and studying prime-mover countries (the US and the UK), followers (Germany, France, and Italy), and latecomers (Japan and Korea), Competing Policies for Competitiveness addresses the crucial questions to be asked; what appropriate roles should government be assigned, and which government actions are useful public policy and which represent unnecessary and harmful intervention? The book also attempts to utilize the Japanese case as an analytical reference against which experiences of other economies are examined.

How can knowledge management function well in a highly dynamic VUCA context? This Element focuses on the context of Japanese management and practices to present the concept of people-centric innovation ecosystem. An overview of Japanese management is provided, from publications in English to the insiders' view of Japanese scholars, combining these sources with interviews and dynamic groups with local managers and case studies to illustrate the state and evolution of Japanese management and practices. Highlighting the people-centricity in Japanese management, its networked innovative capability sustains enterprise development in a highly dynamic VUCA context. The interconnectedness and mutual influence of Japanese and Western management have the potential to generate more general management advancements. This Element aims to contribute to the debate on generalization and contextualization, culture and metaculture, and the coexistence of convergence and divergence. Japanese womenomics and its implications for Asian emerging economic powers are also discussed.

This is the first Open Access book introducing more than 20 of Japan’s leading innovative entrepreneurs from the 17th century to the present. The author outlines the innovative business models created by entrepreneurs including SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo)’s Yanai Tadashi, Honda’s Soichiro Honda, Sony’s Akio Morita, Panasonic’s Konosuke Matsushita, and Toyota’s Kiichiro Toyoda, as well as their predecessors including Takatoshi Mitsui of Mitsui Zaibatsu, Shibusawa Eiichi of Daiichi Bank.While introducing the innovators, the author also raises three broader questions: 1. Why did Japan industrialize earlier than any other country outside Europe and the United States? 2. Why was Japan able to realize unsurpassed economic growth between the 1910s and the 1980s? 3. Why has Japan’s economy stagnated for more than 30 years since the 1990s? Drawing upon analytical concepts including Schumpeter’s breakthrough innovation, Kirzner’s incremental innovation, and Christensen’s disruptive innovation, the author contends that Japan’s successes were based on unique and systematic breakthrough innovation and an accumulation of incremental innovation, while it later fell victim to a combination of breakthrough innovation from advanced countries and disruptive innovation by developing nations.