Designing the Product Architecture for High Appropriability: The Case of Canon -- Case Study Shimano: Market Creation Through Component Integration -- Invisible Dimensions of Innovation: Strategy for De-commoditization in the Japanese Electronics Industry -- The Customer System and New Product Development: The Material Supplier’s Strategy in Japan -- The Japanese Know-Who Based Model of Innovation Management — Reducing Risk at High Speed -- The Domestic Shaping of Japanese Innovations -- Exploiting “Interface Capabilities” in Overseas Markets: Lessons from Japanese Mobile Phone Handset Manufacturers in the US -- “Fuzzy Front End” Practices in Innovating Japanese Companies -- Implementing Process Innovation — The Case of the Toyota Production System -- Reorientation in Product Development for Multiproject Management: The Toyota Case -- Suppliers’ Involvement in New Product Development in the Japanese Auto Industry — A Case Study from a Product Architecture Perspective -- NPD-Process and Planning in Japanese Engineering Companies — Findings from an Interview Research -- Japanese New Product Advantage: A Comparative Examination -- Differences in the Internationalization of Industrial R&D in the Triad -- Global Innovation and Knowledge Flows in Japanese and European Corporations -- Reducing Project Related Uncertainty in the “Fuzzy Front End” of Innovation — A Comparison of German and Japanese Product Innovation Projects -- From Practice: IP Management in Japanese Companies -- MoT: From Academia to Management Practice — The MoT Implementation Case in a Traditional Japanese Company.

This book provides a profound overview of Japanese ways of managing innovation, looking at various relevant levels such as strategy, processes, organization, culture and implementation. Within this framework, contributions by both researchers and practitioners deal with aspects such as the fuzzy front-end of innovation, the role of knowledge in new product development, supplier integration, product architecture, multi-project management and intellectual property rights issues. Case studies serve to illustrate how new product development projects are carried out in Japan and comparisons with practices in Western countries allow for the identification of differences and similarites between management practices in these different cultural regions.