Tomoatsu Shibata

<p>Within previous research on innovation management, the concept of ambidextrous organizations that allow the two different activities of exploration and exploitation with their different objectives and characteristics to coexist within an organization while being separated has been presented. Regardless of the fact that the relationship between exploration and exploitation differs depending on situations, existing literature does not consider these differences and therefore has only limited relevance and effectiveness. This paper focuses on the product substitutability of exploratory product and existing core products, proposes the cannibalistic and complementary types of ambidextrous organizations, and discusses effective management respectively. Then, through in-depth case study of Fujifilm, the paper illustrates how contingency framework of an ambidextrous organization will be effective for explaining the survival of Fujifilm in the emergence of digitalization. Thus, this paper aims to refine and enhance the concept of ambidextrous organization.</p>

<p>For a company to grow sustainably, it is effective to conduct a search in a new area beyond the current business area and technology area. Many previous studies have pointed out characteristics that tend to search for neighboring regions, and have classified the search activities and have clarified the effects of each of the typed search activities. This paper aims to contribute to the elucidation of exploration process which previous research has not paid attention. First, we present a new concept of search hierarchy and clarify the difference between Fujifilm's and Kodak's exploration strategies. And we argue the reason why the rise and fall of the two companies were divided from the viewpoint of exploration process based on the search hierarchy.</p>

This paper argues that existing theory on dynamism of product architecture predict architecture shift toward modularity even in the automotive industry that was regarded as integral architecture under some conditions. First, this paper review existing literature on product architecture, and then discusses several reasons why automotive companies are trying to transform the architecture from integral to modular. Finally, this paper raises three main research agenda that have not yet been resolved and clarified in modularity research.

Japan's machine tool production was in the top position for 25 years since 1982, but decreased in 2009 by 56.5% from the level in the previous year, lowering the rank to the third and yielding the top position to China. The technical level of the machine tool industry in a country is indicative of its technology base. What happened in the competitiveness of the sector of strategic importance even for its relatively small market? Examination of the official trade statistics up to 2008 permitted to discern the trade structure of machine tools in East Asia and Japan's position in it. It was revealed that Japan has always enjoyed export surplus in this sector, indicating its technological competitiveness intact. The author argue that a coevolution mechanism between the NC equipment and machine tools has been at work as an important factor that supported the development of Japan's machine tool industry.

Technological strategy shift management for smooth transition from the current technology to a new one has become more important than ever for modern businesses. Many foregoing studies on this subject have, however, been concentrated on unsuccessful cases of failure and analyzed causes of the failure: few studies have given detailed analysis of successful technology transition. This paper presents a detailed case study on the strategy shift by Matsushita Electric for the new plasma television business. New propositions are presented on three subjects: (1) who (the top or middle management) starts the process of strategy shift and how; (2) how the relationship of divisions concerned with the new technology in relation to those for conventional technology (boundary management) when development projects based on the two kinds of technology proceed in parallel; and (3) how the old technology is abandoned to complete the shift.