2006 | Academic Journal | Research | Hitotsubashi ICS (MBA in Japan)

More: In many industries, firms introduce successive generations of new and enhanced product models to remain competitive. Product enhancements target first-time purchasers and consumers who already own an existing product and are considering upgrading to a new and enhanced product. Upgrade decisions differ from new purchase decisions because they are hindered by the psychological costs associated with the purchase price spent on the existing product. This research examines how the enhanced product can be positioned relative to the existing product to mitigate the psychological costs and facilitate upgrade purchases. A series of studies demonstrate that consumers with existing products are more likely to upgrade when the enhanced product is generally dissimilar to the existing product. Upgraders have stronger preferences than first-time purchasers for enhanced products with new features rather than for improvements on existing features, and they prefer enhancements that focus on a few key features rather than a general enhancement of all features.

More: This study explores how larger Japanese firms, and in turn the Japanese economy, has restructured since the burst of Japan's asset-inflated economic bubble in 1989. Based on interviews, surveys, and analysis of the appointment calendars of 79 Japanese CEOs, this research examines changes in CEO priorities since 1989 and how these changes reflect larger shifts in the way business is conducted in larger Japanese firms. The authors find that Japanese CEOs and their firms are becoming much more focused on investor relations than on bank relations, more focused on media relations and promoting their firm to the market, and less focused on government relations as Japan undergoes deregulation. The authors also find that Japanese CEOs are focusing more on external factors, with greater emphasis on shareholders and less attention to employees. Within the firm, Japanese decision-making is becoming more top-down than middle-up-down, as well as less hierarchical with fewer levels of management. In addition, Japanese CEOs and their firms are focusing more on outsourcing and hiring non-regular workers. The most surprising finding, however, is the absence of radical change in terms of personnel-related priorities and practices, in light of the length and degree of Japan's recession.

Author:	Nonaka, I., von, K. G., Voelpel, S.
Year:	2006
URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0170840606066312

More: Organizational knowledge creation is the process of making available and amplifying knowledge created by individuals as well as crystallizing and connecting it to an organization's knowledge system. In other words, what individuals come to know in their (work-)life benefits their colleagues and, eventually, the larger organization. The theory explaining this process -- the organizational knowledge creation theory -- has developed rapidly in academia and been broadly diffused in management practice over the last 15 years. This article reviews the theory's central elements and identifies the evolving paths taken by academic work that uses the theory as a point of departure. The article furthermore proposes areas in which future research can advance the theory of organizational knowledge creation.

Author:	Nonaka, I., Peltokorpi, V.
Year:	2006
URL:	http://www.inderscience.com/offer.php?id=10326

More: In many companies, the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) practices amounts to upgrading information technology. We propose that a successful movement to KM practices requires more: the dynamic synthesis of visions, driving objectives, dialogues, practice, supporting contexts (ba), and phronetic leadership. Our case study of a pharmaceutical company, Eisai Co., Ltd., shows that it is visions aimed at the |common good|, in combination with phronetic leadership and appropriate enabling processes, that increase employee commitment to organisational knowledge creation rather than those based on objective market analyses and top-down-implemented KM practices.

More: In recent years knowledge management (KM) has received increased attention from academics and practitioners. There are several challenges to establishing KM as a separate discipline one of the most central being conceptual plurality. The purpose of this paper is to review and position 20 of the most frequently cited KM articles in management journals. More specifically, this paper classifies the KM publications on the subjectivity-objectivity continuum, discusses the strengths and weaknesses of the publications drawing from positivism and interpretative philosophies, and further discusses the challenges in KM, and how objectivity and subjectivity can be used to provide both product and process orientations in future research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.