Young Won Park – författare

This book provides a framework and real case analyses concerning business architecture strategy and platform-based ecosystems. Firstly, the book introduces a framework of business architecture strategy and suggests an engineering process that employs a business architecture analysis system in which the various business best-practices information technology (IT) tools are integrated into an interface. More specifically, this architecture analysis provides the means to realize two essential features: a strategy that allows global firms to sense changing market needs, and a tool that combines mechanical engineering with electronics and software IT tools.

Secondly, the book discusses platform-based ecosystems. Crucial issues for today’s firms are associated with value creation through their platform and ecosystem framework. With a major emphasis on modular product architecture, US firms have focused heavily on platform development in modular industries. Their base is operation system (OS) software, so that IT firms in general focus on software capabilities—and digital control in particular. In contrast, the advantage for Japanese firms is not digital but analog control. Without any drastic changes in their industry practices, Japanese firms are likely to sustain their analog platform advantage.

The book subsequently puts forward a holistic view through the connection of business architecture strategy and platform-based ecosystems. The theoretical framework and case illustrations are especially useful to firms involved in a variety of industries that must respond to the turbulent environmental changes of the digital era. Most of the cases target not only Japanese firms but also many other global firms. Readers are systematically shown how to balance technological competence and customer competence by using the framework of business architecture strategy and platform-based ecosystems.

Firstly, the book examines innovation practices of long-lived Japanese firms and compares them with those of German, American and Korean firms. Based on extensive interviews with executives and field studies, it identifies the essential qualities of each country in which these innovative firms and innovative talents are found.

Intended for academics, students and practitioners in the areas of organizational theory and strategic management, this book clarifies the critical practices of long-lived innovative firms and organizational innovators.

This book provides an overview of evolving patterns of trade partnership with historical perspective. It presents changing requirements of industry competitiveness and explains the vital relationships between trade partnerships and industry competitiveness. As well, it further examines the interactive relationships between trade partnerships and industry competitiveness.

In recent years, with decreasing strategic alliances among nations and less visibility of international governance mechanisms (e.g., WTO) and counter to globalization, preferential trade agreements and free-trade agreements have proliferated among nations. At the same time, industrial competitiveness is becoming a serious strategic policy priority of nations—both advanced and emerging economies.

This book addresses the dilemma that firms face in engaging in corporate social responsibility (CSR) while maintaining a financially sustainable business model in the era of digital transformation. Several strategies that firms have taken to integrate CSR within the business model are also highlighted. To explicate the problems involved, the book primarily focuses on entrepreneurial ventures, given their nascent business model that best illustrates how business leaders can embed the social mission in the firm at the beginning of organizational founding. In this age, sustainability is an innovation’s new frontier. For sustainable competitive advantage, the book argues for how companies can build more sustainable products, processes, and practices that benefit the firm and society through maintaining an entrepreneurial philosophy.

Through a review of recent trends in CSR, the authors emphasize that CSR is no longer a “bolt-on” or some kind of window-dressing to satisfy public relations (PR) needs. Credible CSR is critical to business legitimacy and sustainability. Aware of the public’s increasing scrutiny, companies are increasingly ramping up their focus on social responsibility, whether by championing women''s rights, protecting the environment, or attempting to obliterate poverty, on local, national, or global levels. Simultaneously, more firms face accusations of “greenwashing” – backlash due to consumer mistrust in the intentions behind their CSR practices.

While numerous works have highlighted this dilemma and how companies fall short in their prosocial goals or financial objectives (or both), there is a lack of understanding of the ingredients and crucial processes required for the successful implementation of CSR in entrepreneurial enterprises. This book serves to fill that gap. 

This book offers a systematic literature review and a set of empirical studies on supply chain integration. Supply chain management is recognized as an essential means for firms to achieve competitive advantages, in which supply chain integration is regarded as the core for operational excellence: shorter lead time, lower inventory, faster delivery, and higher product and service quality. Using data from an international survey of manufacturing firms, an interrelated set of studies that investigate supply chain integration from different perspectives at multiple levels are conducted. Intra-organizational factors such as products, production systems, and socio-technical systems are examined to understand their effects on supply chain integration, indicating that firms need to implement different types of supply chain integration for specific competitive priorities. Then, the outcomes of supply chain integration, including its impact on risk management and sustainability management, are investigated from an inter-organizational perspective. The firm is embedded in a manufacturing network, a global supply chain, or both, and it can use supply chain integration as a strategic action for risks. Sustainability has been a vital issue for manufacturers, and supply chain integration can enhance its success. This book makes significant contributions to the relevant literature on supply chain integration and offers insights to supply chain managers in manufacturing industries.

This book deals with the importance of ambidexterity in innovation activities and global strategies. Ambidextrous global strategy (AGS) is crucial for global firms in the turbulent twenty-first century. Here, AGS is defined as simultaneous achievements of global integration and local adaptation, or responsiveness, through utilization of a firm’s core facilities and organizational capabilities. To illustrate the specific implementation mechanism, a framework of AGS with global market strategy and organizational capability is shown for the purpose of analysis. There is also a focus on effective ambidextrous business strategies for the digital transformation era. Distinctive features of the book include, first, a framework of ambidextrous innovation and AGS. Second, there are analyses of examples of many industries to implement ambidexterity strategies, including Korean shipbuilding firms, Korean and Japanese steel firms, LCD panel flat-glass manufacturers, Japan’s trucking industry, agricultural corporations, and other Japanese manufacturing firms. Finally, the book focuses on effective ambidextrous business strategies for the digital transformation era with the integration of open and closed innovation. The book presents specific business strategies for survival in the digital transformation era and then suggests an architectural analysis using artificial intelligence (AI) for the realization of AGS. 

The target readership is made up of academics, students, and practitioners in the areas of global management, organizational theory, and strategic management. Especially for those readers, the book clarifies the critical practices and business strategies of innovative global firms in the era of digital transformation.

This book delineates the framework to research and develop new theories and system techniques for a circular economy (CE) strategy to fulfill Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the era of digital, sustainable, and green transformation (DX, SX, and GX). For that purpose, five system techniques are presented here: (1) multi-generational and circular economy value chain management (CE-VCM), (2) cyclical resource supply and resource collection, (3) CE product planning and digital marketing, (4) lifecycle design of IoT (Internet of Things) products, and (5) a sharing platform and application software compatible with CE-VCM.

The book also explores how to proceed with international trends in research concerning CE policies and standards in Japan, the EU, and the USA. Included are case studies of advanced CE companies in diverse industries, such as automobiles, electronics, food and agriculture, and software, to name just a few. Surveys of trends in CE policy and successful industry case studies in Japan are presented and compared with those in other countries. 

In the past, the Japanese manufacturing industry was primarily based on the business model of selling off the products introduced into the market and the 3R tactics of “reuse, reduce, and recycle” to follow up on waste disposal. Compared to global movements, however, the responses to the CE trend in Japan, the Japanese government''s CE policy, and CE management strategy in the Japanese industrial world have lagged considerably behind. In the future, when Japanese companies conduct global business transactions, it will be pivotal for them to implement a CE management strategy compatible with the ISO 59000 series.

The Japanese government and global companies must respond to the SDGs, including Goal 12: Producer and Consumer Responsibility. To keep up with external environmental trends, Japanese global firms also must respond to the changes discussed in this informative volume.

This book explores how cosmetics firms have made the transition to technology-enabled beauty companies to meet changing customer demands. For this purpose, the contexts of cosmetics industry growth and digital marketing strategy in the post-pandemic world are presented here. The digital marketing strategies of Japanese and Korean firms are shown, along with new business models and future prospects in cosmetics industries.In the post-pandemic world, the growing middle class will set priorities for beauty–hygienic goals, nutritional choices, and healthcare development needs. The growth rates of Asian economies were slowed during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet their growth opportunities were not constrained. Diverse industries—the cosmetics industry in particular—have addressed the needs of these growing segments in Asia. In keeping up with the leading business trends, cosmetics firms also have leveraged big data and built their brand partnerships across industries, applying the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence for their product and process development. The vast amounts of big data gathered through IoT devices are now being used to improve entire value chain operations, creating a digital thread through the global value chain. These data are increasingly used to create new services and develop a business model for global firms.As of 2021, four of the top ten global cosmetics firms are from the USA (Estée Lauder, Proctor & Gamble, Coty, and Johnson & Johnson), three are from Europe (L’Oréal, Unilever, and Beiersdorf), two from Japan (Shiseido and Kao), and one from Korea (Amore Pacific). The USA and European firms still maintain their competitive advantage in the cosmetics industry. Global cosmetics market share by region shows that North Asia is the largest (35%), followed by North America (26%) and Latin America (7%), Europe (22%), and Africa and other regions (10%). With the rapid increase of the middle class in the Asia region, more sales are expected there than anywhere else. In this dynamic market environment, a real challenge for the cosmetics industry is how to develop and put into practice its own unique business model.