In today's science-driven industries, such as the semiconductor industry, firms are increasin... more In today's science-driven industries, such as the semiconductor industry, firms are increasingly engaged in across-firm research and development projects in the form of a research consortium or a strategic alliance. Those collaboration processes, however, have complex aspects due to the competing relationship of the firms in product markets and will not be successful unless the participating firms have enough incentives to reveal their private information and to exert sufficient efforts. The paper attempts to explore the conditions under which firms have enough incentives to reveal their information and/or to expend collaborative efforts. Three existing economic models are examined for this purpose. It is argued that those incentives depend upon the nature of competition in the product markets, information structure, and the way that each firm's private information affects this competition. The models examined in the paper suggest that some mechanism is necessary to evaluate...
JSR Challenges Increasing Market and Technology Complexities: In search of its radical transformation process (Japanese)
The main purpose of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of economics and management sc... more The main purpose of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of economics and management science, the organizational and business strategies of JSR (previously Japan Synthetic Rubber), which went through a huge transformation during the 1990s. This study is based on the field research conducted during the period from 2002 to 2007. The main theme of this research is about the semiconductor photoresist business, which belongs to one of JSR's trilogy in the non-petrochemical area; electronic materials, display materials, and optical materials. Indeed, since the mid 1980s, JSR's photoresist business has been at the core of its business from its radical transformation to its current fine chemical centric company based on scientific and engineering knowledge of polymer synthesis, polymer structural analysis, and polymer evaluation technology for physical properties and functionalities.
Yale: Economic Growth Center Discussion Papers, 2001
Through the use of extensive field research and an original international questionnaire, the main... more Through the use of extensive field research and an original international questionnaire, the main sources of the leapfrogging development of the Japanese machine-tool industry in the past 19 years were investigated. Past studies have emphasized the strategic RD (b) the positive and early participation of frontline skilled workers in assembly or machining shops; and (c) the existence of highly skilled assemblymen or machinists. The significant roles of these intrafirm factors were robustly validated by the statistical analysis of the questionnaire survey as well as by the results of our field research. The results showed striking similarities between the Japanese and the German machine-tool makers and notable dissimilarities between the two and the US makers.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818
This paper shows that Japan was able to maintain relatively low levels of unemployment even durin... more This paper shows that Japan was able to maintain relatively low levels of unemployment even during periods of economic recession, due mainly to a combination of factors such as its enduring cooperative relations between labor and industries, and strong legal support of job security. It is often claimed that certain employment practices in Japan constitute an indirect social policy that accomplishes welfare objectives that are more often achieved through explicit public sector mechanisms in other countries. This paper examines several Japanese employment practices with a view to understanding their origins and evolution, the role of government policy in shaping them, and their distinctiveness in comparison with other industrial countries. Attention is given to four such practices: (a) flexible employment conditions; (b) lifetime employment; (c) egalitarian in-house training; and (d) the use of female temporary workers. The World Bank enjoys copyright under protocol 2 of the Universal...
Using a unique new survey, the Japanese Worker Representation and Participation Survey (JWRPS), t... more Using 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 th...
This paper examines the effect of introduction of information technology driven manufacturing inf... more This paper examines the effect of introduction of information technology driven manufacturing information systems (IT-MIS) to workshops on the usage of contingent workers and subsequent productivity growth based on an unique survey of workshop supervisors of the Japanese electrical and electronic industry. The analysis indicates that the introduction of IT-MIS enhances the variety of tasks performed by contingent workers and induces productivity growth at the workshops. Productivity enhancement at workshops with IT-MIS critically depended on extensive information sharing between regular and contingent workers, as well as between regular workers and designers and/or fabrication engineers. These results indicate that merely introducing IT-MIS does not automatically lead to productivity enhancement. Enhanced productivity depends on the organizational design of communication structures among the affected employees, including contingent workers.
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons why Japanese microlithography manufactur... more The main purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons why Japanese microlithography manufacturers lost their competitiveness in the latter half of the 90's mainly based on the field interviews and publicly available data. Especially, we shall focus on the following four possible determinants of competitiveness in this industry: 1) Characteristics of the major units (including software) that compose microlithography, and the methods of their production and procurement. 2) Inter-firm R&D collaboration for new product development; 3) Product architecture and the other ways of incorporating product quality; 4) Changes in demand for microlithography and the marketing strategies of each company to adapt to such demand changes. Many people mention that the rapid growth of ASML can be ascribed to their extensive strategies of outsourcing and R&D collaboration, and that the modular product architecture enabled them to carry out such strategies. However, we will discuss how such an explanation is not necessarily appropriate. ASML's current position has been established but not because of their extensive use of outsourcing; the modular product architecture was not a major source of their competitiveness either. We are not saying that the competitiveness of Nikon and Canon have weakened just as a result of the transitory process of the ordinary business cycle. Rather, we found deeper structural factors that caused problems for the two Japanese companies. While the manufacturing industry is being transformed from an engineering-based to a science-based one, vertically integrated Japanese R&D systems, like Nikon's or Canon's, have begun to exhibit serious drawbacks to innovation.
This paper tries to clarify how current science-based industries become required to respond to th... more This paper tries to clarify how current science-based industries become required to respond to their rapidly advancing complexity and what kinds of new organizational forms are inevitable to cope with such complexity. The microlithography industry is used for this purpose as a typical example. The central analytical concept is "interim modularity," defined as the modular architecture at trial-and-error development and/or prototyping phases, to effectively orchestrate the dispersion of specialized knowledge and know-how over a wide range of professionals inside and outside of corporations. Such complex tools have to be system-designed with built-in interim modularity for pre-architecture search and post-architecture finetuning.
In today's science-driven industries, such as the semiconductor industry, firms are increasin... more In today's science-driven industries, such as the semiconductor industry, firms are increasingly engaged in across-firm research and development projects in the form of a research consortium or a strategic alliance. Those collaboration processes, however, have complex aspects due to the competing relationship of the firms in product markets and will not be successful unless the participating firms have enough incentives to reveal their private information and to exert sufficient efforts. The paper attempts to explore the conditions under which firms have enough incentives to reveal their information and/or to expend collaborative efforts. Three existing economic models are examined for this purpose. It is argued that those incentives depend upon the nature of competition in the product markets, information structure, and the way that each firm's private information affects this competition. The models examined in the paper suggest that some mechanism is necessary to evaluate...
JSR Challenges Increasing Market and Technology Complexities: In search of its radical transformation process (Japanese)
The main purpose of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of economics and management sc... more The main purpose of this study is to analyze, from the perspective of economics and management science, the organizational and business strategies of JSR (previously Japan Synthetic Rubber), which went through a huge transformation during the 1990s. This study is based on the field research conducted during the period from 2002 to 2007. The main theme of this research is about the semiconductor photoresist business, which belongs to one of JSR's trilogy in the non-petrochemical area; electronic materials, display materials, and optical materials. Indeed, since the mid 1980s, JSR's photoresist business has been at the core of its business from its radical transformation to its current fine chemical centric company based on scientific and engineering knowledge of polymer synthesis, polymer structural analysis, and polymer evaluation technology for physical properties and functionalities.
Yale: Economic Growth Center Discussion Papers, 2001
Through the use of extensive field research and an original international questionnaire, the main... more Through the use of extensive field research and an original international questionnaire, the main sources of the leapfrogging development of the Japanese machine-tool industry in the past 19 years were investigated. Past studies have emphasized the strategic RD (b) the positive and early participation of frontline skilled workers in assembly or machining shops; and (c) the existence of highly skilled assemblymen or machinists. The significant roles of these intrafirm factors were robustly validated by the statistical analysis of the questionnaire survey as well as by the results of our field research. The results showed striking similarities between the Japanese and the German machine-tool makers and notable dissimilarities between the two and the US makers.
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank 1818
This paper shows that Japan was able to maintain relatively low levels of unemployment even durin... more This paper shows that Japan was able to maintain relatively low levels of unemployment even during periods of economic recession, due mainly to a combination of factors such as its enduring cooperative relations between labor and industries, and strong legal support of job security. It is often claimed that certain employment practices in Japan constitute an indirect social policy that accomplishes welfare objectives that are more often achieved through explicit public sector mechanisms in other countries. This paper examines several Japanese employment practices with a view to understanding their origins and evolution, the role of government policy in shaping them, and their distinctiveness in comparison with other industrial countries. Attention is given to four such practices: (a) flexible employment conditions; (b) lifetime employment; (c) egalitarian in-house training; and (d) the use of female temporary workers. The World Bank enjoys copyright under protocol 2 of the Universal...
Using a unique new survey, the Japanese Worker Representation and Participation Survey (JWRPS), t... more Using 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 th...
This paper examines the effect of introduction of information technology driven manufacturing inf... more This paper examines the effect of introduction of information technology driven manufacturing information systems (IT-MIS) to workshops on the usage of contingent workers and subsequent productivity growth based on an unique survey of workshop supervisors of the Japanese electrical and electronic industry. The analysis indicates that the introduction of IT-MIS enhances the variety of tasks performed by contingent workers and induces productivity growth at the workshops. Productivity enhancement at workshops with IT-MIS critically depended on extensive information sharing between regular and contingent workers, as well as between regular workers and designers and/or fabrication engineers. These results indicate that merely introducing IT-MIS does not automatically lead to productivity enhancement. Enhanced productivity depends on the organizational design of communication structures among the affected employees, including contingent workers.
The main purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons why Japanese microlithography manufactur... more The main purpose of this paper is to examine the reasons why Japanese microlithography manufacturers lost their competitiveness in the latter half of the 90's mainly based on the field interviews and publicly available data. Especially, we shall focus on the following four possible determinants of competitiveness in this industry: 1) Characteristics of the major units (including software) that compose microlithography, and the methods of their production and procurement. 2) Inter-firm R&D collaboration for new product development; 3) Product architecture and the other ways of incorporating product quality; 4) Changes in demand for microlithography and the marketing strategies of each company to adapt to such demand changes. Many people mention that the rapid growth of ASML can be ascribed to their extensive strategies of outsourcing and R&D collaboration, and that the modular product architecture enabled them to carry out such strategies. However, we will discuss how such an explanation is not necessarily appropriate. ASML's current position has been established but not because of their extensive use of outsourcing; the modular product architecture was not a major source of their competitiveness either. We are not saying that the competitiveness of Nikon and Canon have weakened just as a result of the transitory process of the ordinary business cycle. Rather, we found deeper structural factors that caused problems for the two Japanese companies. While the manufacturing industry is being transformed from an engineering-based to a science-based one, vertically integrated Japanese R&D systems, like Nikon's or Canon's, have begun to exhibit serious drawbacks to innovation.
This paper tries to clarify how current science-based industries become required to respond to th... more This paper tries to clarify how current science-based industries become required to respond to their rapidly advancing complexity and what kinds of new organizational forms are inevitable to cope with such complexity. The microlithography industry is used for this purpose as a typical example. The central analytical concept is "interim modularity," defined as the modular architecture at trial-and-error development and/or prototyping phases, to effectively orchestrate the dispersion of specialized knowledge and know-how over a wide range of professionals inside and outside of corporations. Such complex tools have to be system-designed with built-in interim modularity for pre-architecture search and post-architecture finetuning.
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Papers by Hiroyuki Chuma