Strategic Management and Innovation Strategies

This book uses case studies to analyze how companies have implemented business strategies to adapt from analogue to digital, from hardware-based to software-based, and from incremental to radical innovation, in the new-generation competition. Through this analysis, the distinctive features and challenges of these companies are examined from the perspective of innovation strategy, focusing on dynamic capabilities of the companies. A major objective of this monograph is to identify the key determinants that make up the dynamic capabilities of the companies in international competitive marketplaces. In other words, the analytical focus is on clarifying the consistency and differences between the representative dynamic capability theory and the innovation strategies of companies examined in this study. It also presents management strategies from the perspective of “organizational transformation” when confronting companies with cost-competitive and innovative resources.

The common feature of the studied companies is that entrepreneurial managers and leaders have played the critical roles in creating new business units with organizational transformation. The book demonstrates the differences in innovation strategies from those of typical companies previously analyzed. This book is highly recommended not only to academicians but to businesspeople who seek an in-depth and up-to-date overview of unique innovation strategies of companies that are leaders in global markets.

Takabumi Hayashi  (Ph.D. in Economics, Rikkyo University) is Professor Emeritus of Rikkyo University, Tokyo.  He successively filled the position of senior lecturer at Fukuoka University, associate professor and professor of International Business at Rikkyo University, and Professor at Kokushikan University, Tokyo. His recent research arears are innovation systems and R&D management, focusing on knowledge creation and diversity management. His works have been widely published in books and journals. His book Multinational Enterprises and Intellectual Property Rights (in Japanese; Moriyama Shoten, Tokyo, 1989.)” is widely cited,  and Characteristics of Markets in Emerging Countries and New BOP Strategies (in Japanese; Bunshindo, Tokyo, 2016) received the award from Japan Scholarly Association of Asian Management (JSAAM) in 2018. Paradigm Shift in Technologies and Innovation Systems(co-edited with J.Cantwell, Springer, 2019), and Base of the Pyramid and Business Process Outsourcing Strategies (co-edited with H.Hoshino and Y.Hori, Springer, 2023) are widely read. He has been sitting on the editorial board of several academic journals.

Yoshikazu Sakamoto (Ph.D. in Commerce, Keio University) is a Professor of Business Administration at the College of Commerce, Nihon University, Japan, and an Associate Fellow of the Center for Evolution of Global Business and Institutions (CEGBI) at the School for Business and Society, University of York, the UK. He received his Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. from Keio University, Japan. His research interests lie in the business history of global supply chains and innovation. His book “R&D of Standard Oil Company (New Jersey) after Dissolution” (in Japanese; Chikura, Tokyo, 2008)” is focusing on the R&D management of a ‘big company’ from a historical perspective. He is an advisory committee member of the Euro-Asian Management Studies Association (EAMSA). He received the Best Reviewer Award 2018 from EAMSA. He is also a member of the European Business History Association (EBHA) and the Business History Conference (BHC).