Safety in Numbers: Downsizing and the Deinstitutionalization of Permanent Employment in Japan. Administrative Science Quarterly, 2001 Vol.46 No.4 pp.622-654

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This study examines the role of downsizing in the deinstitutionalization of permanent employment among publicly listed companies in Japan between 1990 and 1997. We found that although economic pressure triggered downsizing, social and institutional pressures shaped the pace and process by which downsizing spread. Large, old, wholly domestically owned, and high-reputation Japanese firms were resistant to downsizing at first, as were firms with high levels of human capital, as reflected by high wages, but these social and institutional pressures diminished as downsizing spread across the population. We argue that this breakdown of social constraints was due to a safety-in-numbers effect: as downsizing became more prominent, the actions of any single firm were less likely to be noticed and criticized, and the effect of the institutional factors that once constrained downsizing diminished.

Analysis of Credit Spread in Japan’s Corporate Bond Market. The Changing Shape of Fixed Income Markets: A Collection of Studies by Central Bank Economists, BIS Papers 2001 No. 5 pp.113-146

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This paper analyses the determinants of variation in the yield spread (credit spread) between government bonds and corporate bonds in Japan's bond market after 1997. The authors conduct empirical tests on the relationship between credit spreads and several economic and financial variables. A key finding is that default risk and the overall financial situation in Japan were the most significant factors in explaining the credit spread. The ratio of corporate bond issuance to government bond issuance is also an important determinant of the spread, a result that preceding studies had been unable to either prove or disprove conclusively. Notably, some of the factors that market participants claim to focus on in their bond dealing activities, in particular duration risk and the crowding-out effects of higher government debt, did not appear to have a significant impact on credit spreads.

Making the Most of Your Company’s Knowledge: A Strategic Framework. Long Range Planning 2001 Vol. 34 No. 4 pp.421-439

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This paper develops a framework of four strategies for managing knowledge. Companies can leverage their knowledge throughout the organisation, expand their knowledge further based on existing expertise, appropriate knowledge from partners and other organisations, and develop completely new expertise by probing new technologies or markets. The two core processes of knowledge creation and transfer are central to the execution of these strategies, as is the company's domains of knowledge. The framework is based on conceptualisation about knowledge management practices at Unilever, a multinational fast-moving consumer goods company.

Trade-ins, Mental Accounting, and Product Replacement Decisions. Journal of Consumer Research 2001 Vol.27 No.4 pp.433-446.

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When a consumer who already owns a durable‐type product in a category faces the opportunity to upgrade to a new, higher‐quality product, the replacement purchase decision is driven by both normative economic factors and psychological factors. As a normative decision maker, s/he considers the purchase price of the new alternative, but s/he additionally considers the mental cost of retiring the old product before s/he has gotten his/her money’s worth out of it. During ownership of a product, a consumer mentally depreciates the initial purchase price, thus creating a “mental book value” for the product. The write‐off of this mental book value is felt as the mental cost of a replacement purchase. Based on the principles of mental accounting and mental depreciation, I provide a theoretical explanation for this mental cost and why an individual’s replacement purchase decision may be more sensitive to the mental cost than the marginal cost. When applied appropriately, mental accounting can serve a useful purpose to the utility‐maximizing consumer in the long run, but when misapplied, it results in a misallocation of resources that does not add any value from the perspective of utility maximization. Through three experiments, I measure the negative effect of the write‐off on a replacement purchase decision and demonstrate ways in which it can be mitigated. Trade‐ins are examined as one way in which a consumer can be guided to make replacement purchase decisions that are more aligned with normative choice.

知識管理から知識経営へ : ナレッジマネジメントの最新動向　『人工知能学会誌 』2001 人工知能学会 編 16巻 1号 pp.4-14