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Collaborative structure between Japanese high-tech manufacturers and consumers Yuichi Washida Article information:To cite this document: Yuichi Washida, (2005),"Collaborative structure between Japanese high-tech manufacturers and consumers"If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -This is a study that aims to explore a new conception of marketing management based on the analyses of the demand side in Japanese high-tech industries. Currently, due to the rapid development of technologies, conventional marketing and management methodologies sometimes cannot explain why emerging technologies and new usage diffuse epidemically among consumers in a short time. Design/methodology/approach -As a major example of successful technological development, this study focuses on a collaborative structure between Japanese high-tech manufacturers and two types of consumer communities, "otaku" and "kogal." The paper explores a hypothesis that each of the two consumer communities gives a different type of feedback to the manufacturers, and thus Japanese manufacturers can develop and improve their products very efficiently. Findings -Japanese management has been understood as "kaizen," -a management way to improve the efficiency of the supply side. However, today's Japanese high-tech companies focus relatively on the demand side and have found interesting dynamics of consumer behaviors which can make one technology more valuable and useful in the daily lives. The paper also shows a comparative framework from the viewpoint of the user-collaboration to contrast the basic difference of management styles among the USA, Europe, and Japan, and suggests that each company in each region can use other region's collaboration dynamics to develop its products, or build a technological standard more efficiently. Originality/value -The hypothesis and framework in this paper can be expected to fill a vacuum in studies on Japanese management after the 1990s, as a successor to "kaizen" methodology.

Creativity protocols and methodologies tend to be time consuming if applied manually. This paper presents how information technologies can support innovation and creativity for collaborative scenario creation and discussion. The fusion of change discovery, genetics algorithms, data mining, and computer-supported collaborative tools provide computational models of innovation and creativity. The proposed technology allows groups of participants in a creative processes to have pervasive access to the analysis of the current scenario in real time. This paper introduces such innovation technologies gathered in the DISCUS project, and summarizes the usage of DISCUS on marketing research workshops.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to create socio-technological future scenarios of Japan in the year 2050 and beyond, with a particular focus on energy and its relation to science and technology (S&T). Design/methodology/approach A workshop based on the scanning-based foresight method (SBFM) was conducted. Social change scenarios were created by participants browsed scanning materials about futuristic topics. Then, energy and society scenarios were produced by combining social change scenarios and future issues describing S&T related to energy in Japan in the future. Findings The participants who have different scientific and technological experties produced various images of Japan’s energy society around the year 2050. Based on these depictions, future visions of scenarios about energy and society were different in terms of consistency between S&T and future needs from current visions which focus on the transient of social awareness. The sociocentric view and confidence in self-made technology were found in the workshop and the participants believed some social problems would be solved with rich experiences and expertises in S&T even if human resources were limited. It was also found that each scenario portrayed an optimistic view of the relatively near future, in which innovative energy-related technologies are developed to optimize both personal satisfaction and social efficiency. On the other hand, we found rather pessimistic survival scenarios about the far future as concerns climate change and natural disasters. Originality/value Experts from several fields used their insight to apprehend an energy future and depicted, from scientific and technological perspectives, a vision of a different future society from the one that would emerge in a traditional linear scenario in which a proper balance is struck between the usage of S&T and its limitations. SBFM was also found to be beneficial for insight into energy S&T with its many uncertainties.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to first suggest scanning focal areas in new product development (NPD) by comparing with design thinking and, second, to uncover what people in different occupations expect of NPD based on future scenarios. Design/methodology/approach Authors place scanning and design thinking into a matrix of product-market strategies. In addition, this study adopts several open-end-type questionnaire surveys of employees at Japanese companies who have taken part in idea generation workshops that take a medium- to long-term perspective. Findings Authors found that innovations generated through scanning can cover the most difficult and uncertain areas in practice compared with design thinking. This manuscript also reveals occupational categories can be divided into two groups according to different expectations of NPD: the rapid-fire NPD expectation group and late-bloomer NPD expectation group. The former group which consists of marketing and engineering experts tends to expect that NPD is simply a response to existing needs and that profit will be gained expeditiously through NPD, while the latter, which comprising design and research experts, tends to expect that NPD will realize future innovations. Originality/value This study shows some common and different points between scanning and design thinking by using a theoretical framework of product-market strategies. Also, this study reveals who will lead innovation based on foresight in business.