Empirical Studies on "Japanese-style" Open Innovation

Although the innovation system in Japan has been said to be characterized by the "not invented here" (NIH) attitude primarily taken by large companies, a shift to open innovation involving external collaboration is becoming increasingly important given technological progress and more intense global competition. This project investigates open innovation activities by Japanese firms, by comparing them to U.S. firms, to draw policy implications for changing the Japanese innovation system into a network-based one. Examples of research projects include (1) empirical analysis of open innovation based on firm level survey data in Japan and the United States, (2) business environment analysis for start-up firms by using entrepreneur surveys in Japan and the United States and (3) investigation of the role of big data for facilitating open innovation (case studies and questionnaire surveys). The aim of this project is to propose a style of open innovation that is fitted to the Japanese innovation system and based on relation specific transactions (in comparison to the U.S. system which is based on market based partnerships).

April 1, 2015 - March 31, 2017