This paper analyzes the modularization in the world auto industry. The modularization in the industry has involved architectural changes in product, production, and supplier systems with each region (Japan, Europe and the U.S.A.) emphasizing different purposes and aspects. As an attempt to...

This paper analyzes the modularization in the world auto industry. The modularization in the industry has been involving architectural changes in product, production, and supplier systems, with each region (Japan, Europe, and the U.S.A.) emphasizing different purposes and aspects. As an attempt...

This paper summarizes a questionnaire survey conducted in the first half of 1999 as to historical developments and recent trends of parts transaction practices, component design architecture, inter-firm knowledge transfer, and competitive performance. 153 Japanese first-tier parts suppliers...

This paper examines the development process of music businesses on mobile Internet in Japan and Korea, two leading countries in the world that have been enjoying rapid growth of mobile Internet businesses. Based on the "Large Technological System" perspective (Hughes 1983, 1989), this paper sees...

This paper aims at exploring a mechanism of new business development. To understand how a business develops, we move our analytical focus from the level of a focal business to the level of the "business ecosystem," a collection of related businesses and institutions. We pay special attention to...

This paper addresses reasons for innovation. Innovation requires resources to transform new ideas into products/services to be sold in the market and diffused in society. Yet in the earlier stage of innovation process uncertainty always prevails both technologically and economically. There is no...

This paper examines how mobile music businesses have been developed in Japan and Korea, two countries that have led the world in creating and developing the mobile music industry. We pay attention to the music copyright institution as a "reverse salient," which we argue has played an important...

This paper examines the development process and successful factors of the ringing tone melody downloading service, or "Chaku-Mero," in Japan. Chaku-Mero is a mobile Internet service in which a subscriber could download from a wide selection of music melodies his/her favorite with some fee to get...