Overview
- This book is open access, which means that you have free and unlimited access
- Provides insights into over 20 leading innovative entrepreneurs in Japan, from the 17th century to today
- Offers an overview of Japan’s economic and business history from the early modern period to contemporary times
- Three concepts are used in the analysis of innovation: Schumpeter, Kirzner and Christensen's
Buy print copy
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
About this book
This is the first Open Access book introducing more than 20 of Japan’s leading innovative entrepreneurs from the 17th century to the present. The author outlines the innovative business models created by entrepreneurs including SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, Fast Retailing (Uniqlo)’s Yanai Tadashi, Honda’s Soichiro Honda, Sony’s Akio Morita, Panasonic’s Konosuke Matsushita, and Toyota’s Kiichiro Toyoda, as well as their predecessors including Takatoshi Mitsui of Mitsui Zaibatsu, Shibusawa Eiichi of Daiichi Bank.
While introducing the innovators, the author also raises three broader questions: 1. Why did Japan industrialize earlier than any other country outside Europe and the United States? 2. Why was Japan able to realize unsurpassed economic growth between the 1910s and the 1980s? 3. Why has Japan’s economy stagnated for more than 30 years since the 1990s? Drawing upon analytical concepts including Schumpeter’s breakthrough innovation, Kirzner’s incremental innovation, and Christensen’s disruptive innovation, the author contends that Japan’s successes were based on unique and systematic breakthrough innovation and an accumulation of incremental innovation, while it later fell victim to a combination of breakthrough innovation from advanced countries and disruptive innovation by developing nations.
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
Table of contents (30 chapters)
-
The Era of Breakthrough Innovations
-
The Era of Incremental Innovation
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Takeo Kikkawa, PhD in Economics, The University of Tokyo, is Vice President and Professor at the Graduate School of International Management, International University of Japan. He was Associate Professor at the Department of Business Administration, Aoyama Gakuin University; Professor at the Institute of Social Science, The University of Tokyo; Professor at the Graduate School of Commerce and Management, Hitotsubashi University; Professor at the Graduate School of Innovation Studies, Tokyo University of Science; Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School; and Guest Professor at: St. Gallen University; Yonsei University; and the Berlin Free University. He is Professor Emeritus of The University of Tokyo, and Professor Emeritus of Hitotsubashi University.
Professor Kikkawa’s expertise is Japanese business history, and his main research field is the energy industry. He served as President of the Business History Society of Japan from 2013 to 2016, and isalso a member of the Japanese Government’s Advisory Committee for Natural Resources and Energy, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry).
Professor Kikkawa has published many monographs and articles, including Policies for Competitiveness: Business-Government Relationships in the “Golden Age of Capitalism”, co-edited with Hideaki Miyajima and Takashi Hikino (Oxford University Press, 1999), and Ethical Capitalism: Shibusawa Eiichi and Business Leadership in Global Perspective, co-edited with Patrick Fridenson (University of Toront Press, 2017). He has received several academic awards, including the Energy Forum Award for his book, Nippon Denryoku Gyo Hatten no Dainamizumu [Development Dynamism in Japan’s Electric Power Industry] (Nagoya University Press, 2004).
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: History of Innovative Entrepreneurs in Japan
Authors: Takeo Kikkawa
Translated by: M.S. Murphy, Kazuya Hirai
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-9454-8
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)
Copyright Information: Kreab K.K. 2023
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-19-9453-1Published: 19 March 2023
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-19-9456-2Published: 19 March 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-981-19-9454-8Published: 18 March 2023
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 291
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Asian Business, Economic History, Economics, general, Economic Growth, History of Japan, Asian Economics