How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

Preparing the books to read every day is enjoyable for many people. However, there are still many people who also don't like reading. This is a problem. But, when you can support others to start reading, it will be better. One of the books that can be recommended for new readers is experience and education. This book is not kind of difficult book to read. It can be read and understand by the new readers.

Experience and Education.

The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society

How have Japanese companies become world leaders in the automotive and electronics industries, among others? What is the secret of their success? Two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, are the first to tie the success of Japanese companies to their ability to create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. In The Knowledge-Creating Company, Nonaka and Takeuchi provide an inside look at how Japanese companies go about creating this new knowledge organizationally. The authors point out that there are two types of knowledge: explicit knowledge, contained in manuals and procedures, and tacit knowledge, learned only by experience, and communicated only indirectly, through metaphor and analogy. U.S. managers focus on explicit knowledge. The Japanese, on the other hand, focus on tacit knowledge. And this, the authors argue, is the key to their success--the Japanese have learned how to transform tacit into explicit knowledge. To explain how this is done--and illuminate Japanese business practices as they do so--the authors range from Greek philosophy to Zen Buddhism, from classical economists to modern management gurus, illustrating the theory of organizational knowledge creation with case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, Nissan, 3M, GE, and even the U.S. Marines. For instance, using Matsushita's development of the Home Bakery (the world's first fully automated bread-baking machine for home use), they show how tacit knowledge can be converted to explicit knowledge: when the designers couldn't perfect the dough kneading mechanism, a software programmer apprenticed herself withthe master baker at Osaka International Hotel, gained a tacit understanding of kneading, and then conveyed this information to the engineers. In addition, the authors show that, to create knowledge, the best management style is neither top-down nor bottom-up, but rather what they call "middle-up-down," in which the middle managers form a bridge between the ideals of top management and the chaotic realities of the frontline. As we make the turn into the 21st century, a new society is emerging. Peter Drucker calls it the "knowledge society," one that is drastically different from the "industrial society," and one in which acquiring and applying knowledge will become key competitive factors. Nonaka and Takeuchi go a step further, arguing that creating knowledge will become the key to sustaining a competitive advantage in the future. Because the competitive environment and customer preferences changes constantly, knowledge perishes quickly. With The Knowledge-Creating Company, managers have at their fingertips years of insight from Japanese firms that reveal how to create knowledge continuously, and how to exploit it to make successful new products, services, and systems.

The knowledge-creating company

Individualism and collectivism

New information and communication technologies have imposed a dynamic on the contemporary world that is inducing transformational change within economic, social and cultural realms, resulting in synergy and convergence effects that are difficult to predict. To put it simply, within the growing complexity and unpredictability of the ambient conditions, there is no defined, closed repertoire, strategy, or solution, whether business oriented or institutional, that provides both effective and innovative approaches to the increasing structural problems of the global stage. The only existing solution to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage within today’s world of permanent and endogenous change is the involvement of human capital (potential): its creativity and innovative approaches which alone can become a source of Schumpeter’s creative destruction.

This implies even more, in the case of emerging economies, which still lag behind the more mature, developed countries both in economic, social and cultural standards of living. To truly close this gap, an interdisciplinary approach to human capital (human resources) is more than required, especially in reference to the transformational potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and any associated new management techniques, new business models, and new regulatory policies. Thus, the objective of this conference is to provide a forum for interested researchers and practitioners to exchange their experiences and creative ideas related to ICT management for global competitiveness and economic, social and cultural growth in emerging economies. 

Possible topics may include but are not limited to the following aspects of innovation: 
• Economical, psycho-social and legal frameworks as they relate to ICT and ICT Management 
• Unique ICT management techniques for emerging and transition economies 
• Methods for measuring the benefits and costs of projects involving the adoption of ICT 
• The role of human and social capital 
• Gender and other socio-demographic factors in human and social capital and in innovations processes 
• Innovative ways for generating revenues and creating commercial knowledge products 
• Educational systems and training as they relate to ICT and ICT Management 
• Tradition and contemporaneity of pedagogical thought 
• ICT innovations to support small and medium enterprises 
• ICT innovations as a path to economic growth 
• ICT productivity with specific reference to the prevalent social and business conditions 
• Global supply chain management in emerging and transition economies 
• Country specific case studies, with specific reference to the prevalent psychosocial and business conditions 
• ICT off-shoring/outsourcing into emerging and transition economies 
• ICT project management, with specific reference to the prevalent social and business conditions 
• Digital divide in emerging and transition economies 
• E-commerce impact in emerging and transition economies 
• E-government in emerging and transition economies 
• Healthcare and ICT Management 
• Psychological, social, and economic aspects of Internet use in emerging and transition economies 
• Virtual reality in psychological treatment and psychotherapy 
• Analytical psychology and psychotherapy in the era of new technology 
• Information and communication technologies in personnel recruitment, assessment and development 
• Leadership and new technologies 
• Psychological aspects of working in a virtual team 
• Information and communication technologies in an ageing society 
• Quantitative methods and information technology in management

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm?abstractid=3140412

Cornel Torcu

Papers

ICT Management for Global Competitiveness and Economic Growth in Emerging Economies (ICTM)