Japan
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- 16 Nov 2017
- Cold Call Podcast
Language and Globalization: The Mandate to Speak English at Rakuten
Japan’s largest online retailer, Rakuten, is rapidly expanding into global markets and requiring all employees, where ever they are located, to conduct business in English. Tsedal Neeley discusses the strong connection between language and globalization. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 29 Aug 2017
- Book
Using Language to Build a Global Company
In her new book The Language of Global Success, Tsedal Neeley describes Japanese tech giant Rakuten's five-year effort to adopt English as its lingua franca of business. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.
- 07 Aug 2017
- Working Paper Summaries
Governance Through Shame and Aspiration: Index Creation and Corporate Behavior in Japan
By exploiting the unique features of Japan’s JPX-Nikkei 400 index, this paper examines how membership in a stock index serves as a source of prestige that can motivate managers and influence corporate governance norms. Findings are important for understanding non-pecuniary mechanisms to induce meaningful changes in corporate behavior.
- 07 Sep 2016
- Working Paper Summaries
Decision-Making by Precedent and the Founding of American Honda (1948–1974)
While the production and distribution of goods in a firm is commonly overseen by a hierarchy of management, decision-making within these organizations is often frenetic. This paper demonstrates empirically that the president of American Honda made important strategic decisions by following the precedent set by his boss and former mentor, Honda’s chief strategist, Takeo Fujisawa—by making careful, educated guesses about how Fujisawa would have addressed similar issues. This study identifies the guiding influence of historical precedent and hypothesized intentions and emphasizes the social character of strategic decision-making.
- 27 Jul 2015
- Research & Ideas
The ‘Promotion’ That Makes You Feel Bad
Receiving an unexpected professional status bump doesn't always feel good, especially if it wasn't really earned. Companies need to be aware of potential problems with unearned status gain, and be ready with solutions, says Tsedal Neeley. Open for comment; 2 Comment(s) posted.
- 15 May 2015
- Research & Ideas
Kids Benefit From Having a Working Mom
Women whose moms worked outside the home are more likely to have jobs themselves, are more likely to hold supervisory responsibility at those jobs, and earn higher wages than women whose mothers stayed home full time, according to research by Kathleen McGinn and colleagues. Open for comment; 33 Comment(s) posted.
- 27 Aug 2014
- Lessons from the Classroom
Learning From Japan’s Remarkable Disaster Recovery
Harvard Business School students make an annual trek to businesses in the Japanese area wrecked by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami. Their objectives: learn all they can about human resilience and share their own management knowledge. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Jan 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Separating Homophily and Peer Influence with Latent Space
People are often more willing to try new things when they see others doing so. This phenomenon, which academics call "social influence", has a profound impact on many aspects of customer decision-making and marketing. For example, social influence affects consumers' willingness to take up new technologies, adopt and use social networks, and ask their physicians for particular prescription medicines. Marketers are thus eager to understand how and to what extent social influence affects people's consumption decisions. To date, however, it has been difficult to pinpoint the effects of social influence, as researchers have struggled to separate it from a simple fact that like-minded people tend to enjoy the same things, per the adage "Birds of a feather flock together." The authors use the field of mobile app adoption in Japan to examine this problem. Japan is an ideal testing ground because approximately 80-85 percent of all page views occur through mobile. In addition, mobile apps are often social in nature, especially those that are linked to a social network platform. The authors devise a new method to assess social influence by controlling for other factors that usually complicate the picture. Overall, the findings show that peer usage accounts for more than a quarter of all mobile app adoptions. The paper also highlights a risk that firms could overestimate social influence by 40 percent on average, even up to 100 percent in certain cases. The authors' method helps overcome this risk. Key concepts include: Social influence is clearly important in customer decision making and marketing. It has a profound impact on the adoption of new technologies, social network usage and adoption, eCommerce, new prescriptions of pharmaceutical drugs, ad effectiveness, group decision making, and customer retention. Using a new approach, this paper documents the impact of peer behavior on the adoption of mobile apps in a social network. Results show that peers drive more than a quarter of all mobile app adoptions. Results also show that firms risk overestimating the impact of social influence by 40% on average, even up to 100% in certain cases. The authors' method helps overcome this risk. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 21 Oct 2013
- Working Paper Summaries
How Major League Baseball Clubs Have Commercialized Their Investment in Japanese Top Stars
Japanese money flowing from broadcasting rights, sponsorships, and merchandise contributes substantially to the prosperity of Major League Baseball (MLB) in America. This market growth depends on wide exposure of and good performance by Japanese major leaguers. Acquiring and signing these stars can become a passport to get in touch with the Japanese market directly. The authors examine how the MLB clubs have tried to commercialize their investment in Japanese top stars and assesses whether the clubs have succeeded. Seven factors attract revenues from Japanese companies and fans: pitcher or position player, player's popularity, non-stop flights from Japan, distance from Japan, non-sport tourist attractions in a city, size of Japanese community in the city, and player's and team's performance. The most important factor, however, is the player's talent and popularity in terms of performance in both Japan and the US and his media exposure in Japan including endorsement contracts. Key concepts include: In terms of attracting Japanese spectators and corporate sponsors, signing a position player has a clear advantage for MLB clubs compared to signing a pitcher. High popularity for each player is a prerequisite condition for success in attracting revenues from Japanese companies and fans. In terms of attracting spectators from Japan, there is a presumed advantage for cities that have non-stop flights from Japan. However, it is difficult to estimate how big an impact direct flights have. When Japanese travelers whose prime interest is to see a MLB game plan to visit the US, distance from Japan affects somewhat their willingness to make the trip. When Japanese tourists choose a destination to see an MLB game in the US, attraction points other than MLB ballparks are influential, unless the tourists are solely fans of a specific player. The larger the local Japanese community, the larger the opportunity for a team to attract people to the ballpark for a Japanese star. If a Japanese major leaguer does not perform well in the MLB level, he could lose his luster even if he was a top player and very popular in Japan. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 05 Nov 2012
- Research & Ideas
What Wall Street Doesn’t Understand About International Trade
Firms that correlate their international trading activity with the local ethnic community significantly outperform those that don't, according to new research by Lauren H. Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy, and Umit G. Gurun. Closed for comment; 4 Comment(s) posted.
- 18 Oct 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Historical Trajectories and Corporate Competences in Wind Energy
Analyzing developments in the wind turbine business over more than a century, Geoffrey Jones and Loubna Bouamane argue that public policy has been a key variable in the spread of wind energy since the 1980s, but that public policy was more of a problem than a facilitator in the earlier history of the industry. Geography has mattered to some extent, also: Both in the United States and Denmark, the existence of rural areas not supplied by electricity provided the initial stimulus to entrepreneurs and innovators. Building firm-level capabilities has been essential in an industry which has been both technically difficult and vulnerable to policy shifts. Key concepts include: Firms from Denmark have been unusually prominent throughout the history of the wind energy business. The basis of the competitive Danish industry was laid without support or even encouragement from its government. US-based firms have also been regularly found among the leading wind energy companies. But their relative importance varied considerably over time, has rarely reflected the overall importance of the U.S. market, and has involved a changing cast of actual firms. German and Spanish, and more recently Indian and Chinese firms, have emerged to become amongst the largest turbine manufacturers in the industry. The most striking change over the last decade has been in the competitive landscape. Engineering powerhouses, such as GE and Siemens, and wholly or partly state-owned Chinese firms with low-cost bases, are now prominent actors in this industry. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 31 May 2011
- Research & Ideas
Japan Disaster Shakes Up Supply-Chain Strategies
The recent natural disaster in Japan brought to light the fragile nature of the global supply chain. Professor Willy Shih discusses how companies should be thinking about their supply-chain strategy now. Closed for comment; 16 Comment(s) posted.
- 08 Apr 2011
- Research & Ideas
Will the Japan Disaster Remake the Landscape for Green Energy in Asia?
Entrepreneurs at the recent Asia Business Conference at Harvard Business School said the disaster in Japan could accelerate the move toward "green" energy sources in Asia, opening opportunities. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 17 Mar 2011
- Research & Ideas
Harvard Business School Faculty Comment on Crisis in Japan
Harvard Business School faculty share their views and insights about the challenges that lie ahead for Japan's business leaders and for global companies operating there. Closed for comment; 11 Comment(s) posted.
- 03 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
How Firm Strategies Influence the Architecture of Transaction Networks
In business, an "ecosystem" refers to a group of firms that work together through a series of shared transactions to provide a complex product or service. Using data from the disparate Japanese electronics and automotive sectors, this paper tackles the following questions: Do hierarchies of interfirm transaction networks vary across different ecosystems? What practices explain the difference in hierarchy across these two ecosystems? How do firms' strategies influence hierarchy? And what environmental factors explain the differences in the largest firm's strategies in each ecosystem? Research was conducted by Carliss Y. Baldwin of Harvard Business School and Jianxi Luo, Daniel E. Whitney, and Christopher L. Magee of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Key concepts include: There is a much lower degree of hierarchy in the electronics sector than in the automotive sector, due to the numerous interfirm transaction cycles in the former. Many electronics firms have adopted the strategy of "vertically permeable boundaries," meaning that they allow goods to flow from division to division within the firm, but at the same time, internal divisions can buy from and sell to external suppliers and customers. This strategy, which apparently leads to an increase in transaction cycles and innovation, is virtually nonexistent in the automotive sector. Several environmental factors explain the difference in strategy at these firms. Electronics firms face short product life cycles, low transaction costs, and low levels of asset specificity (meaning investments initially meant to support one transaction are likely to retain their value even if they are used for a different transaction). Automotive firms, on the other hand, have long product life cycles, high transaction costs, and high levels of asset specificity. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Sep 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
The Task and Temporal Microstructure of Productivity: Evidence from Japanese Financial Services
Boredom and fatigue often hamper the productivity of workers whose jobs consist of repeating the same tasks. This paper explores ways in which companies can combat this problem, introducing the idea of the "restart effect" - a deliberate disruption that kindles productivity. Research, which focused on a loan-application processing line at a Japanese bank, was conducted by HBS professor Francesca Gino and Kenan-Flagler Business School assistant professor Bradley R. Staats. Key concepts include: Even taking acclimation into account, a worker's productivity will improve immediately after switching from one task to another, so it behooves managers to introduce a variety of tasks into the workday. All else being equal, workers perform better during the first half of the day than the second half. Productivity improves markedly when workers are given the incentive of leaving as soon as the day's tasks are completed. (The researchers found that workers performed 13.1% better on Saturdays, when they had the option of leaving early, than on Mondays, when they were required to work a nine-hour day.) Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Apr 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Audit Quality and Auditor Reputation: Evidence from Japan
High-quality external auditing is a central component of sound corporate governance, yet what determines audit quality? Douglas J. Skinner, of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and Suraj Srinivasan, of Harvard Business School, study the Japanese audit market, where recent events provide a powerful setting for investigating the effect of auditor reputation on audit quality absent litigation effects. Specifically, Skinner and Srinivasan analyze events surrounding the collapse of ChuoAoyama, the PricewaterhouseCoopers affiliate in Japan that was implicated in a massive accounting fraud at Kanebo, a large Japanese cosmetics company. Taken as a whole, the researchers' evidence provides support for the view that auditor reputation is important in an economy where the legal system does not provide incentives for auditors to deliver quality. Key concepts include: Auditors' reputation for delivering quality is extremely important. A substantial number of clients dropped ChuoAoyama as the extent of its audit quality problems became apparent, but before it became clear that the firm would be forced out of business. The events at ChuoAoyama and particularly the decision by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) to suspend the firm's operations can be seen as a watershed event in Japanese audit practice. The FSA used these events to send a message to the Japanese auditing community that the old ways of doing business would no longer be tolerated, and that it was serious about reforming audit practice. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 19 Apr 2010
- Research & Ideas
The History of Beauty
Fragrance, eyeliner, toothpaste—the beauty business has permeated our lives like few other industries. But surprisingly little is known about its history, which over time has been shrouded in competitive secrecy. HBS history professor Geoffrey Jones offers one of the first authoritative accounts in Beauty Imagined: A History of the Global Beauty Industry. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
- 22 Feb 2010
- Op-Ed
Tragedy at Toyota: How Not to Lead in Crisis
"Toyota can only regain its footing by transforming itself from top to bottom to deliver the highest quality automobiles," says HBS professor Bill George of the beleaguered automobile company that in recent months has recalled 8 million vehicles. He offers seven recommendations for restoring consumer confidence in the safety and quality behind the storied brand. Key concepts include: Toyota Motor Corporation's problem is first and foremost a leadership crisis. It needs a credible leader with a strong, cohesive plan. Competitors Ford and GM are working to regain the market share they have lost to Toyota. Rather than blame floor mats and panicky drivers, as Toyota did when complaints first arose, it should have acknowledged that its vaunted quality system failed. Toyota should seize the opportunity to make radical changes to renew the company and restore consumers' trust. Closed for comment; 0 Comment(s) posted.
How to Monetize Happiness
Is there a business model around happiness? Hitachi believes that a happy employee is a productive one, and is investing in "happiness sensors" to prove the connection. Ethan Bernstein explains why in this podcast. Open for comment; Comment(s) posted.