Abstract
Under the paradigm shift from an industrial society to an information society in the 1990s, contrary to the decrease in operating income to sales in Japan's electrical machinery firms, only Canon demonstrated its increasing trend. This contrasting performance corresponds to Canon's another contrast with respect to increasing technological diversification while reverse trends in other electrical machinery firms. These contrasts suggest us that Canon's technological diversification strategy can be the source of high level of operating income to sales.
Prompted by this hypothetical view, this paper attempts to elucidate a mechanism of Canon's technological diversification with special attention to its contribution to high level of operating income to sales by means of an effective utilization of potential resources in innovation. Comparative empirical analyses are conducted focusing on the consequence of technological diversification and development trajectory in Japan's leading electrical machinery firms over the last two decades.
Reprinted from Technological Forecasting and Social Change 72, No. 1, C. Watanabe, J. Y. Hur and K. Matsumoto, Technological Diversification and Firm's Techno-Economic Structure: An Assessment of Cannon's Sustainable Growth Trajectory, pages: 11–27, copyright (2005), with permission from Elsevier.
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Notes
- 1.
Sanyo (10th sales volume in 1998) was excluded as it was not necessarily R&D intensive firm in the early 1980s.
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© 2009 International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Laxenburg
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Watanabe, C. (2009). Technological Diversification Strategic Trajectory Leading to an Effective Utilization of Potential Resources in Innovation: A Case of Canon. In: Managing Innovation in Japan. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89272-4_9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-89272-4_9
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