Industry Dynamics across Two Borders: Industrial Studies in Asia and the Development of a New Research Paradigm

Project Gist

Elucidation of industrial dynamics by bridging industry history and management and organizational studies

Keywords

industry, competitiveness, innovation, business history, international comparison

Background and Purpose

In this study, we will overcome the situation where the boundaries and institutionalization of academic disciplines differ greatly from country to country through “double border crossing” (interdisciplinary and international border crossing of knowledge). We will redefine the concept of industry based on both (1) the achievements of industry studies and East Asian studies in Japan and (2) the global transformation of “industry” in terms of both actual conditions and analytical concepts under globalization. That will lead to establishing a new field (industry dynamics studies) that bridges industrial history with business administration and organization theory. It will develop the universal framework of industry analysis, and elucidates the characteristics and dynamics of individual industries.

Project Achievements

With the cooperation of more than 60 authors, including world-class researchers in strategy theory, technology & science studies, business history, sociology of technology, and value chain analysis, we are on track to publishing The Oxford Handbook of Industry Dynamics. We have confirmed the lack of ontology of industry (“What is industry?”) and analysis of boundaries and heterogeneity among industries. To overcome this situation, we have systematized theories and methods of industry analysis and laid the foundation for the “industry dynamics” research that bridges historical, longitudinal, and evolutionary studies.

Future Prospects

The manuscript of The Oxford Handbook of Industry Dynamics will be submitted in 2021, and the book will be published in 2022. Following that, we will further conceptualize and theorize the three issues of industry heterogeneity, time in industry dynamics and industry-based capability. This will be achieved through working across the four domains of technology theory, strategy theory, organization theory and history, result of which will be published as The Theory and Methods of Industry Analysis in Japanese. In the field of strategy theory, we will publish papers that position industry as a unit of capability.

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Principal Investigator