1,107 research outputs found
Increasing Complexity and Limits of Organization in the Microlithography Industry: Implications for Japanese Science-based Industries
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to identify characteristics of the complexities and organizational limits that science-based industries in Japan are facing, to clarify the causes and effects of those characteristics and to show how they are related to the recent decline in global competitiveness in these industries. The microlithography industry is used for this purpose as a typical example of science-based industries. In this industry, Nikon and Canon were quite dominant until around the mid 1990s, while ASML of the Netherlands began to increase its competitive strength rapidly in the mid 1990s. The paper introduces the new concept of "interim modularity" vis-a-vis "ex ante modularity" a la Baldwin and Clark (2000) to explain how ASML tries to cope effectively with the drastically increasing complexity of such a technology. The concept of interim modularity is defined as the communication benefits induced by the modular architecture during trial-and-error development processes, no matter how incomplete such architecture may be. The paper emphasizes that extremely complex tools like microlithography require interim modularity to effectively orchestrate the dispersion of specialized knowledge and know-how over a wide range of professionals inside and outside of corporations and that interim modularity is more effectively pursued by ASML than by Nikon or Canon. The paper also indicates that the insufficient cognition of the importance of interim modularity has been widely weakening the competitiveness especially in Japanese science-based industries.
Moore's Law, Increasing Complexity, and the Limits of Organization: The Modern Significance of Japanese Chipmakers' DRAM Business
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to identify the organizational constraints on science innovations in the midst of the increasing complexity of technology and markets and to search for measures to overcome them. For this purpose, we scrutinize the rise and fall of Japanese chipmakers in their commodity DRAM business during the last three decades, during which time all of them have been deeply wounded. We take up this business case mainly because the Japanese semiconductor industry seems to be a forerunner of various science-based industries facing rapid globalization and could provide instructive examples for them in an age of speed-to-market. We think that the rise and fall of Japanese chipmakers in their commodity DRAM business has been deeply influenced by three kinds of ever-growing complexities: the growing market-complexity triggered by the collapse of commodity DRAM prices in 1996, the growing (manufacturing) system-complexity boosted by the advent of 200mm fabrication plants (fabs) in the early 1990s, and the growing process-complexity in fabrication technologies necessitated by 64Mb commodity DRAMs. We explain how and why, compared with U.S. and Korean competitors, Japanese chipmakers could not respond to these growing complexities in a systematic and well-organized manner.
The "Rabassa Morta" in Catalan viticulture: the rise and decline of a long-term sharecropping contract, 1670s-1920s
No full textFor long periods, and in line with recent theoretical literature, the rabassa morta sharecropping contract successfully reduced problems of moral hazard and opportunistic behavior, and provided incentives for sharecroppers to respond to market opportunities. However, from the late nineteenth century, technical change, rising wages, and weak wine prices all increased the incentives for postcontractual opportunistic behavior on the part of the sharecropper, leading to conflicts and loss of trust between the principal and agent. Under these conditions, contemporaries often considered the contract synonymous with "exploitation" and "impoverishment," terms frequently found in the more traditional literature on sharecropping.
What Japanese Workers Want: Evidence from the Japanese Worker Representation and Participation Survey
No full textUsing a unique new survey, the Japanese Worker Representation and Participation Survey (JWRPS), this paper presents the first evidence on the representation/participation gaps among Japanese workers and its links to the degree of their discontent with work and the efficacy of celebrated participatory employment practices. We find that: (i) contrary to the popular rhetoric of the end of "participatory Japanese management", Japanese workers still desire more involvement and greater voice in firm decisions; and (ii) in spite of their strong desire to have more influence, many Japanese workers consider their current level of say at work less than adequate, resulting in significant representation/participation gaps which are comparable to what has been found for U.S. workers. Furthermore, we find an alarming degree of discontent with work among Japanese workers, measured by diverse variables, and weak employee involvement and influence are found to be significantly linked to the degree of such discontent. Finally, our analysis of the survey data yields evidence in support of the hypotheses that: (i) working in firms with strong participatory programs will significantly enhance employee voice; (ii) among those working in participatory firms, actually participating in these programs will yield an additional boost for employee voice; and (iii) financial participation schemes will align the interest of employees with the interest of the firm and thus make employees wanting to have more influence in firm decisions. Our findings suggest that weakening participatory employment practices (as the popular rhetoric at times suggests) may result in exacerbating the already alarming degree of employee dissatisfaction in Japan.
High Performance Work Practices and Employee Voice: A Comparison of Japanese and Korean Workers
No full textUsing a unique new cross-national survey of Japanese and Korean workers, we report the first systematic evidence on the effects on employee voice of High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs) from the two economies which are noted for the wide use of HPWPs. We find for both nations that: (i) workers in firms with HPWPs aimed at creating opportunities for employees to get involved (such as shopfloor committees and small group activities) are indeed more likely to have stronger senses of influence and voice on shopfloor decision making than other workers; (ii) workers whose pay is tied to firm performance are more likely to have a stake in firm performance and hence demand such influence and voice; and (iii) consequently workers in firms with HPWPs are more likely to make frequent suggestions for productivity increase and quality improvement. As such, this paper contributes to a small yet growing new empirical literature which tries to understand the actual process and mechanism through which HPWPs lead to better enterprise performance.high performance work practices, employee voice, Japan, Korea
The "Rabassa Morta" in Catalan viticulture : the rise and decline of a long-term sharecropping contract, 1670s-1920s
No full textFor long periods, and in line with recent theoretical literature, the rabassa morta sharecropping contract successfully reduced problems of moral hazard and opportunistic behavior, and provided incentives for sharecroppers to respond to market opportunities. However, from the late nineteenth century, technical change, rising wages, and weak wine prices all increased the incentives for postcontractual opportunistic behavior on the part of the sharecropper, leading to conflicts and loss of trust between the principal and agent. Under these conditions, contemporaries often considered the contract synonymous with "exploitation" and "impoverishment," terms frequently found in the more traditional literature on sharecropping.Publicad
Data for ''First simulations of day-to-day variability of mid-latitude sporadic E layer structures''
No full textOne file was added on July 21, 2020. (Caiondensity_average.nc)Two files were added on August 3, 2020. (ReadMe2_si_grl.pdf, S1.txt)The title was changed on August 3, 2020. (Before: Simulated Calcium Ion Density)One author was added on August 3, 2020. (Shinagawa Hiroyuki)ReadMe file was replaced on October 13, 2020.Two files were deleted on October 13, 2020. (ReadMe2_si_grl.pdf, S1.txt)Three files were added on October 13, 2020. (MeridionalWind_fig1.txt, VerticalWind_fig1.txt, ZonalWind_fig1.txt
Exploring Factors Behind the Weakening Competitiveness of Japan's Semiconductor Production System: from the viewpoint of meta-level integration capability (Japanese)
No full textThe competitiveness of Japan's semiconductor industry fell sharply in the latter half of the 1990s. This paper attempts to explore structural factors behind this by focusing particularly on production systems. In doing so, special attention is paid to the rapid increase in complexity of technologies and markets, a phenomenon brought about by the "self-propagating" evolution of information technologies of the semiconductor industry's own making. Such an increase in complexity calls for highly specialized knowledge/know-how. At the same time, it is necessary to create a mechanism for combining such knowledge/know-how so as to ensure its cumulative and agile generation in an integral form. Japan's semiconductor industry, however, has yet to create such a mechanism for its production system. This paper attempts to identify factors behind this and find clues toward solving the problem. Although this research is specifically focused on semiconductor production systems, the mechanism for the occurrence of the problem can be observed in various aspects of the industry as if it were fractal patterns. In this regard, the perception that the time for a production-oriented approach is over and now is the time for a design-oriented approach is, albeit generally correct, fraught with substantial danger. This is due to the high probability that the root cause of the stagnation of the Japanese semiconductor industry is identical to that of the weakening of the production system. That is, the reasons behind the Japanese semiconductor industry's inability to effectively produce a new post-DRAM technology driver that can lead the world's semiconductor industry are perceived to be identical to the factors limiting the speed of occurrence of the cumulative accumulation of integral knowledge/know-how (a new process that needs to take place at an abstract level, a rank above the conventional level).
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