Agglomeration and Local Innovation Networks in Japanese SMEs: Analysis of the Information Linkage
This lucid and informative book analyzes the problem of clusters in transition through studies of agglomerations at different stages of development in various East Asian countries.
Empirical Analysis of Factors Promoting Product Innovation in ASEAN Economies: Focusing on Absorptive Capacity and ICT Use
In recent years, East Asian economies have been rapidly developing. The reason is that firms have been successfully achieving product and process innovation by introducing advanced technologies and know-how from MNCs. In order to enhance innovation, firms have to own technology, capability and ICT use. In particular, collaborations with outside organizations such as MNCs (Multi-national corporations), universities, public organizations, local firms are indispensable for firms in developing economies. Authors’ previous research clarified external linkages enhance innovation capability and ICT use, and innovation capability and ICT use promote product innovation in ASEAN firms. These studies analyzed under what conditions firms can promote absorptive capability if they had external linkages. Whether or how absorptive capacity affected innovation capability and ICT use were not explained there. Based on survey data from four ASEAN economies such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, from 2013 to 2014, this study clarifies how absorptive capacity, ICTs, and innovation capability such as QC and cross-functional team enhance product innovation by using SEM (Structural equation modeling). As a result, the following causality from external linkages (origin) to innovation (final outcome) is demonstrated: (i) absorptive capacity is enhanced by external linkages such as local firms, public organizations, and universities; (ii) absorptive capacity enhances innovation capability; (iii) innovation capability enhances ICT use; and (iv) innovation capability and ICT use promote product innovation. These are similar to those of authors’ previous research. Since data are different, it is difficult to compare the results, but the robustness of the results is demonstrated.
Working Knowledge: Employee Innovation and the Rise of Corporate Intellectual Property, 1800-1930
This book presents the legal and business history of corporate ownership of employee knowledge. Skilled workers of the early nineteenth century enjoyed a degree of professional independence because workplace knowledge and technical skill were their 'property,' or at least their attribute. In most sectors of today's economy, however, it is a foundational and widely accepted truth that businesses retain legal ownership of employee-generated intellectual property. In "Working Knowledge", Catherine Fisk chronicles the legal and social transformations that led to the transfer of ownership of employee innovation from labor to management. This deeply contested development was won at the expense of workers' entrepreneurial independence and ultimately, Fisk argues, economic democracy. By reviewing judicial decisions and legal scholarship on all aspects of employee-generated intellectual property and combing the archives of major nineteenth-century intellectual property - producing companies - including DuPont, Rand McNally, and the American Tobacco Company - Fisk makes a highly technical area of law accessible to general readers while also addressing scholarly deficiencies in the histories of labor, intellectual property, and the business of technology.