Trinity for Innovation: the Case of Tokyo Rope in the Meiji Era

Yokoyama, Kazuki (2023): Trinity for Innovation: the Case of Tokyo Rope in the Meiji Era.

Abstract

How companies can achieve the urgently required innovation is a contemporary issue. As a historical example of this issue, this paper notices the case of Tokyo Rope Corporation (Tokyo Seiko) in the Meiji era (1868-1911). The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors of Tokyo Rope’s R&D based on the records of the company history and other documents. This paper points out three factors: (1) rebuilding a corporate governance structure for ambidexterity, which refers balancing the exploitation of existing products with the exploration of new developments; (2) intellectual communication between academic researchers and practitioners; and (3) smooth B2B transactions. The trinity of these factors could have brought about rapid innovation.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: innovation, R&D (research and development), ambidexterity, exploitation, exploration, intellectual communication, and B2B (business-to-business).
• Subjects: N - Economic History > N6 - Manufacturing and Construction > N65 - Asia including Middle East; N - Economic History > N8 - Micro-Business History > N85 - Asia including Middle East; O - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth > O3 - Innovation ; Research and Development ; Technological Change ; Intellectual Property Rights > O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D

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