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

Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology

The authors examine the implications of electronic shopping for consumers, retailers, and manufacturers. They assume that near-term technological developments will offer consumers unparalleled opportunities to locate and compare product offerings. They examine these advantages as a function of typical consumer goals and the types of products and services being sought and offer conclusions regarding consumer incentives and disincentives to purchase through interactive home shopping vis-à-vis traditional retail formats. The authors discuss implications for industry structure as they pertain to competition among retailers, competition among manufacturers, and retailer-manufacturer relationships.

Interactive home shopping: Consumer, retailer, and manufacturer incentives to participate in

The World Wide Web (WWW) is increasingly being used as a tool and platform for survey research. Two types of electronic or online surveys available for data collection are the email and Web based survey, and they constitute the focus of this paper. We address a multitude of issues researchers should consider before and during the use of this method of data collection: advantages and liabilities with this form of survey research, sampling problems, questionnaire design considerations, suggestions in approaching potential respondents, response rates and aspects of data processing. Where relevant, the methodological issues involved are illustrated with examples from our own research practice. This methods review shows that most challenges are resolved when taking into account the principles that guide the conduct of conventional surveys.

Conducting online surveys

Dorothy Leonard-Barton warns readers upfront that her new book, "Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation," is not a quick read. Indeed it is not, though the author, a Harvard Business School professor, tries hard to soften a knot of strategy research with true-life examples from several technology companies. Unfortunately, business books tend to be like Arnold Schwarzenegger movies: the special effects and twists are a lot more important than the basic plot, which doesn't change much.

"Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation"

Innovation generation has increasingly been recognized as an outcome of interaction between a firm and various outside entities. According to this view, supplier involvement and alliances are routes to innovation generation. Despite this realization, there is a dearth of research, both conceptual and empirical, focusing on innovation generation in buyer-seller relationships in supply chains. In an attempt to fill this void, this article develops a conceptual model of innovation generation in buyer-seller relationships in upstream supply chains. The authors propose that innovation generation in supply chain relationships, both incremental and radical, is a consequence of interactions between buyers and sellers. They also delineate factors internal and external to the relationship that moderate the link between interaction and innovation generation. Finally, the authors discuss managerial implications of their research and offer guidelines for future empirical research.

/pdf/innovation-generation-in-supply-chain-relationships-a-1vx911kgzl.pdf

Innovation generation in supply chain relationships: A conceptual model and research propositions

https://stratoserve.typepad.com/Roy%20%26%20Sivakumar%202011%20JPIM.pdf

Managing Intellectual Property in Global Outsourcing for Innovation Generation

https://stratoserve.typepad.com/Roy%2520%2526%2520Sivakumar%25202010.pdf

Innovation generation in upstream and downstream business relationships

Knowledge redundancy is a powerful concept in understanding supply chain performance including supply chain value creation and competitive advantage. This paper argues that knowledge redundancy is not about “redundancy” that might suggest a waste or duplication of knowledge. In contrast, knowledge redundancy between adjacent members of the supply chain is critical to superior supply chain performance. The paper examines the tacit and explicit nature of knowledge and knowledge redundancy in supply chains. It develops a conceptual model and a series of propositions that argue that managing knowledge redundancy in the context of supplier‐related factors, firm‐related factors, and interface‐related factors can bring positive supply chain performance outcomes.

Subroto Roy

Papers

Innovation generation in supply chain relationships: A conceptual model and research propositions

Managing Intellectual Property in Global Outsourcing for Innovation Generation

Innovation generation in upstream and downstream business relationships

Knowledge redundancy in supply chains: a framework

Internet Adoption as a Two-Stage Transition: Converting Internet Non-Users to Internet Users and to Online Buyers: