Japanese Information Technology Research Articles

Study on the Relationship Between Corporate Culture and Corporate Performance in IT industry in Japan via Text Mining

This study analyzed the corporate culture of listed companies in the Japanese information technology industry from the management and employee perspectives, and studied the relationship between corporate culture and corporate performance for the period between FY 2018 and 2021. Four corporate culture dimensions (compete-oriented, control-oriented, collaborate-oriented, and create-oriented) of the competing values framework were quantified by evaluating annual reports and employees’ online reviews through text analysis. In addition, this study found that some relationship between the corporate culture dimensions from the two perspectives and corporate performance indicators.

Turnover in Japanese IT Professionals: Antecendants and Nuances

The Japanese information technology (IT) workplace is unique compared to that of other nations. IT represents a large sector of the country’s economy, and organizations need to develop proactive approaches to retain their IT workforce. In order to manage employee turnover, they need to understand the distinctive factors influencing employee turnover intention, as turnover intention is known to be a reliable predictor of actual turnover. In this study, a model was constructed and tested with data collected from 284 Japanese IT professionals. Our findings show that the effects of work exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and friendship networks on turnover intention are fully mediated through job satisfaction. Work-home conflict has no impact on job satisfaction. The strength of the relationships is stronger for younger than for older organizations. Furthermore, individualistic factors (i.e., work exhaustion and personal accomplishment) have a stronger impact on job satisfaction than collectivistic factors (i.e., work-home conflict and friendship networks). These results show the fragility of the notion of long-term employment, which is supposed to be embraced within the entire Japanese work culture.

Disability, quality of life, productivity impairment and employer costs of migraine in the workplace

BackgroundMigraine is the leading cause of days lost due to disability in the world among people less than 50 years of age. There is a paucity of evidence on the impact of migraine and other headache disorders and the cost and productivity losses in the workplace.MethodsEmployee population survey assessed prevalence, characteristics, and disability of headache disorders at a Japanese information technology company. This study was supported by the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region Office and International Headache Society.Results2458 (1963men, 495 women) out of 2494 responded to the survey that utilized ICHD-3 beta criteria. Among these, 13% (205 male/123 female) had migraine (M), 53% (1093 male/207 female) had tension-type headache (TTH) and 4% (61 male/27 female) had migraine and TTH (M/TTH). The number of days when productivity at work was reduced by half or more because of headache was significantly higher in migraine compared to TTH. The norm-based scoring of SF-12v2 was significantly lower in M/TTH and M than TTH. The economic loss due to absenteeism for migraine was calculated to be $ 238.3US$/year/person for day-off and 90.2US$/year/person for half-day off using migraine disability assessment score (MIDAS). The economic loss due to presenteeism for migraine was calculated to be $ 375.4US$/year/person using MIDAS and 2217US$/year/person using work productivity and activity impairment questionnaire (WPAI). Furthermore, estimated cost of productivity loss associated with presenteeism using WPAI was calculated at 21.3 billion US$/year in Japan as a whole.ConclusionsThis study revealed a high prevalence and disease burden among employees with migraine that is associated with substantial losses in productivity and employer cost. These results support the development and implementation of workplace programs to improve migraine management in the workplace and reduce the burden and costs associated with lost workplace productivity.

A Preliminary Analysis of the Competency and Skills of Japanese IT Engineers in Managerial Positions

As globalization and digitization progress rapidly, the world as well as the talent in demand and the skills and competencies required are changing. Under these circumstances, every corporation is under great pressure to adopt its organization to prepare for the coming future changes. Therefore, a discussion about how to develop new leaders who are capable of tackling complex problems in the future is required. Although the demand for talent in science and engineering is increasing over the course of digitalization, many engineers struggle in management jobs, especially regarding intangibles. This study aims to measure the competency of Japanese Information Technology (IT) engineers, utilizing the Progress Report on Generic Skills (PROG) assessment tool to identify the talent development opportunities in the field of engineering and science. Thus, this study demonstrates that general competencies, such as teamwork, personal, and problem-solving skills, were more often exhibited by IT engineers with a background in social sciences and liberal arts compared with those with a background in engineering and science. The results suggest that engineers have both challenges and opportunities to grow their competencies by increasing their training in non-cognitive skills.

Decrease in Work Ability Index and sickness absence during the following year: a two-year follow-up study.

Using a 2-year follow-up design, we examined whether changes in work ability during 1year predicted sickness absence in the following year. Workers (N=1408) from the Japanese information technology sector each completed the Work Ability Index (WAI), the Brief Job Stress Questionnaire (BJSQ), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) in 2011 and 2012. Absence data during 2013 was obtained from employees' computerized attendance records. We used psychological distress as evaluated by the GHQ; job stress and job support calculated using the BJSQ; and job title, sex, and age as potential confounding variables. Thirty-five employees had at least one sickness absence lasting more than seven consecutive days in 2013. Forty-nine percent of sickness absences were due to mental illness, and the others were due to orthopedic disease (20%), cancer (9%), and other illnesses (23%). Decrease in WAI scores from 2011 to 2012 predicted sickness absence in 2013 (Odds ratio (OR) 1.19, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.12-1.27). This association remained unaltered after adjusting for sex, age, job title, WAI score from the year before, job stress, job support, and GHQ score (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.06-1.25). We analyzed this association separately by reason for absence: mental or other illness. WAI score decreases predicted sickness absence for both reasons (OR for mental illness 1.24, 95% CI 1.14-1.36; OR for other illnesses 1.14, 95% CI 1.04-1.24). Decrease in work ability during the year predicts sickness absence in the following year while predictive power was weak.

Work, meaning, and gene regulation: Findings from a Japanese information technology firm

The meaning in life, typically reflected in a sense of purpose, growth, or social embeddedness (called eudaimonic well-being, EWB), has been linked to favorable health outcomes. In particular, this experience is inversely associated with the conserved transcriptional response to adversity (CTRA), which involves up-regulation of genes linked to inflammation and down-regulation of genes linked to viral resistance. So far, however, little is known about how this transcriptome profile might be situated in specific socio-cultural contexts. Here, we tested 106 male workers at a large Japanese IT firm and found that the CTRA is inversely associated not only with general EWB but also with a more contextualized sense of meaning derived from the perceived significance of one’s work and a sense of interdependence with others in the workplace. These results expand previous links between personal well-being and CTRA gene expression to include the socio-cultural determinants of meaning in life.

Do Japanese electronics firms still follow traditional vertical integration strategies? Evidence from the liquid crystal display industry

In the past, Japanese electronics firms have been known for following vertical integration strategies. Such strategies are consistent with Japanese managerial preferences, traditional relationships, and institutions in Japan. However, changes in the technological and competitive environment have resulted in increasing vertical specialization in the electronics industry outside of Japan. This paper examines whether and to what extent Japanese information technology and consumer electronics firms involved in active matrix Liquid Crystal Display production implemented and maintained integration strategies. While focusing on one industry, this paper aims to shed further light on changing attitudes and practices in Japanese management relating to strategy and internationalization.

Work improvement factors for the amelioration of work ability, with a focus on individual capacity to deal with stress in an IT company.

The aim of this study was to explore factors that ameliorate work ability by focusing on workers' capacity to deal with stress.The subjects were 1,330 workers from the Japanese information technology (IT) sector. Each subject completed questionnaires in 2011 and 2012 that consisted of the work ability index (WAI), the three-item sense of coherence (SOC), and the Mental Health Improvement and Reinforcement Research of Recognition (MIRROR). The results of the WAI were also obtained in 2013. The median SOC score in 2011 was used to divide the subjects into two groups, the Low SOC group and the High SOC group, then we verified the factors that contributed to improved work ability in both of these groups over a two-year period. Results indicate that an improvement in work ability in the Low SOC group could be predicted by giving workers opportunities for education or training, by making efforts to reduce the stress of commuting, by clarifying their assignments, and by establishing support systems when troubles occur. For the High SOC group, such improvements could be predicted by giving workers job control, by giving education or training for the promotion of their abilities, and by establishing a system for assuming responsibility. In conclusion, improvements in the work environment can increase the work ability of Japanese IT workers in conformity with their capacity to deal with stress.

Cognitive Negotiation Schemata in the IT Industries of Japan and Finland

ABSTRACT The existing literature emphasizes the importance of negotiation skills in the field of IT. However, negotiation and negotiation styles in the IT industry have received limited attention. This original empirical research compares the negotiation schemata of Finnish and Japanese IT business people. The study identifies negotiation schemata used in one or both culture groups. Negotiators with greater experience and power in the negotiation process command more schemata. However, neither population enjoys the full range of negotiation schemata. Business negotiators in or out of IT and these cultures may benefit from knowing the schemata and the results of matching and mismatching. Keywords: Negotiation; Finland; Japan; Information Technology; Schemata INTRODUCTION In the information technology (IT) industry, where collaboration among various professionals and customers is important, different kinds of negotiation skills are needed. Although the IT industry appears very international and deeply collaborative (Whitehead, 2007), we can assume that practices of negotiation participants vary in different cultures, as negotiation styles are culturally associated (Adair, Taylor, & Tinsley, 2009; Nishiyama, 1999; Tinsley, 2001). That is, if two cultures differ considerably, negotiation styles might also differ. Although the existing literature highlights the importance of negotiation skills in the field of IT; negotiation styles per se have received only scarce attention in the field of IT. This lack has developed despite the literature showing that negotiation skills directly impact for instance IT and software outsourcing decisions (Davis, Ein-dor, King, & Torkzadeh, 2006; Kuivanen & Nahar, 2009), price negotiation of IT services (Vykoukal, Wolf, & Beck, 2009), IT project management (Abraham, Beath, Bullen, Gallagher, & Goles, 2006), and service contracts (Kim, Agrawal, Jayaraman, & Rao, 2003; Raghu, Woo, Mohan, & Rao, 2008) as well as among individuals involved in organization-wide IT implementations (Matsuura, Fuller, Kaufman, Kim, & Baba, 2013). Based on the research gap discussed above, the research aim of this study is to increase our understanding of negotiation styles among negotiators in an era when technology outruns business management and business people must constantly refine skills for interacting. More specifically, the authors are interested in the negotiation schemata of business negotiators in the IT industry. Schemata refer here to the mental patterns that impact how people process information (Colman, 2009). Boehm, Bose, Horowitz, and Lee (1997) called for new models applicable to software development yet none have appeared beyond their Win-Win Spiral, a process level approach that does not address situational thinking, communication, nor selection and application of mental models. The knowledge targeted in this study helps us to better understand how IT negotiators apply various schemata in business negotiation and how different factors impact on availability and choice of schemata. The specific research questions are: i) Which schemata are in use among the current generation of Japanese and Finnish negotiators in the IT industry? ii) Do Finnish and Japanese IT negotiators change their schema based on situation? iii) Do age, level in company, position of the negotiator in the team or frequency of negotiation impact availability of schemata or choice of schemata? With this knowledge, IT negotiators may be able to develop better negotiation strategies and overcome some difficulties when interacting in a global business environment. From the theory point of view, this study expands the negotiation schemata literature with specific reference to technology business. In addition, this study contributes to the IT business literature by investigating to negotiation styles in international context. For this study, we selected negotiators working in the IT industry from Finland and Japan as these two countries are distant in almost every way, geographically, linguistically, and in the measures of widely used cultural comparison tools (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2005; Ojala, 2015; Peterson, Wood, & Smith, 2008; Trompenaars & Hampden-Turner, 2012). …

A use of DEA–DA to measure importance of R&D expenditure in Japanese information technology industry

This study discusses a use of DEA–DA (Data Envelopment Analysis–Discriminant Analysis) to assess the corporate value of IT (Information Technology) firms and other manufacturing firms. It is widely known that Tobin's q is a ratio that serves as a measure of corporate value. This study explores a linkage between DEA–DA (as a methodology) and Tobin's q (as a theoretical basis for corporate performance) via the measurement of Altman's Z score (as a financial performance). The Z score provides us with aggregated information regarding financial ratios and other financial measures that investors usually examine in their investment decisions. This study applies the proposed approach to compare between Japanese IT and manufacturing firms. The empirical evidence obtained in this study indicates that R&D (Research and Development) expenditure enhances the corporate value of Japanese IT and manufacturing firms. However, the R&D expenditure of IT firms is important but not essential, compared with other manufacturing firms in Japan. The empirical result is inconsistent with the opinion of many corporate leaders and individuals who are associated with the IT industry. They believe that the R&D expenditure is essential for the Japanese IT industry to maintain its international competitiveness in the global market. In addition to the R&D expenditure, the empirical study indicates that IT leaders need to pay attention to the reduction of an R&D cycle time to enhance their competitiveness because a market cycle time of IT products is less than that of the other manufacturing products. The findings on Japanese IT and manufacturing industries are applicable to other industrial nations.

Going Soft: How the Rise of Software Based Innovation led to the Decline of Japan’s IT Industry and the Resurgence of Silicon Valley

This paper documents a shift in the nature of innovation in the information technology (IT) industry. Using comprehensive data on all IT patents granted by the USPTO from 1980-2002, we find strong evidence of a change in IT innovation that is systematic, substantial, and increasingly dependent on software. This change in the nature of IT innovation has had differential effects on the performance of the IT industries in the United States and Japan. Using a broad unbalanced panel of US and Japanese publicly listed IT firms in the period 1983-1999, we show that (a) Japanese IT innovation relies less on software advances than US IT innovation, (b) the innovation performance of Japanese IT firms is increasingly lagging behind that of their US counterparts, particularly in IT sectors that are more software intensive, and (c) that US IT firms are increasingly outperforming their Japanese counterparts, particularly in more software intensive sectors. The findings of this paper thus provide a fresh explanation for the relative decline of the Japanese IT industry in the 1990s. Finally, we provide suggestive evidence consistent with the hypothesis that human resource constraints played a role in preventing Japanese firms from adapting to the shift in the nature of innovation in IT.

Gender Difference in Work‐Family Conflict among Japanese Information Technology Engineers with Preschool Children

Since the Family Policy Act, which requires companies to develop action plans to support their employees who have children in an attempt to reverse the declining birthrate in Japan, was enacted in 2003, many Japanese organizations and occupational health staff have become interested in work-family conflict (WFC), especially WFC in employees with young children. A cross-sectional survey of regularly employed information technology (IT) engineers with preschool children in Japan was conducted to examine the gender difference in WFC, relationship of WFC with outcomes, and predictors of WFC by gender. Data from 78 male and 102 female respondents were analyzed. There was no significant gender difference in total level of WFC. However, the level of work interference with family (WIF) was significantly higher in males than in females and the level of family interference with work (FIW) was significantly higher in females. Regarding outcomes, WIF was significantly related to depression and fatigue in both genders. Moreover, different predictors were related to WIF and FIW by gender. A family-friendly culture in the company was related to WIF only in males. To prevent depression and cumulative fatigue in employees with young children, occupational practitioners have to pay attention to not only employees' work stress but also their family stress or amount of family role in both genders.

Knowledge, Finance and Human Capital: The Role of Social Institutional Variables on Entrepreneurship in Japan

New technology-based firms are acknowledged as playing an important role in the knowledge-based economy. Policy makers in Japan have advocated the creation of such firms, focusing on two primary fields--biotechnology and information technology (IT)--which are expected to make major contributions to Japan's international competitiveness, to the creation of new industries, and to employment opportunities. Although several empirical studies have been conducted into such firms in the West, few comparable studies have been undertaken in Japan using original data from indigenous firms. This paper addresses this gap by examining several firm-level and managerial characteristics of Japanese biotechnology and IT venture firms, in the context of three social institutional variables that impact on entrepreneurship and the growth of such firms: knowledge, finance and human capital.

Diversification and performance of Japanese IT subsidiaries: a resource-based view

This paper examines the relationship between corporate diversification and performance for Japanese subsidiaries in the information technology (IT) industry. In particular, it reports on our study which drew on the resource-based view of the firm to make the distinction between related and unrelated diversification. Data for more than 5 years were used to test our hypotheses. The results suggest that related subsidiaries out-perform unrelated subsidiaries on a number of dimensions including: performance, survival, and employee productivity growth. The study also found support for resource-based arguments suggesting that related diversification in knowledge-based (tertiary) industries, such as IT, plays a more important factor in firm success than in primary or secondary industries.

Micro-Macro Linkages Between IT Investment and Macroeconomic Impact: What Makes the Japanese Case Different from the U. S. Case?

Investment in information technology (IT) is expected to enhance the productivity and/or profitability of the individual firm, and to deliver productivity-related benefits that flow through the firm, both at sectoral and macroeconomic levels. This flow-through-which we term the “micro-macro linkage”-depends on various factors, and if one (or more) should fail, IT investment may fail to yield tangible macroeconomic benefits.Such failure is widely thought to have occurred in the U. S. during the 1980s, creating the so-called “IT productivity paradox” referenced in Solow's well-known line, “You can see the Computer Age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.” In the years since, numerous economists have sought to identify possible causes for this productivity shortfall. For the U. S., the paradox seems happily to have disappeared during the early 1990s. In Japan, however, massive IT investment has yet to deliver macroeconomic growth, suggesting that the productivity paradox remains at work.In this article, the authors draw on the U. S. experience to identify several key factors that may affect the micro-macro linkage, then examine whether these factors may be applicable to Japan today. Our key findings, as derived from Japanese corporate data, are as follows:1. IT investment contributes to firm productivity in Japan;2. Certain forms of management initiative (e. g., creating “flatter” (or less hierarchical) organizations) have not delivered expected benefits in Japan; and3. IT investment does not make any significant positive contribution to profitability in Japanese firms.The authors suggest that Japanese IT paradox may be at least partly attributable to failures in the management initiatives that typically accompany IT introduction.

JAPAN'S INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SECTOR: A COMPETITIVE ARENA FOR U.S. FIRMS?

The information technology industries (computer software, telecommunications, data processing services, and information services) are among America's strongest service industries. These are industries in which Japanese policy makers and businesses are striving to gain competitive advantages (Congress of the United States, 1987), as Japanese information technology firms have not been considered very competitive in the international marketplace (Enderwick, 1990; Porter, 1990).