The purpose of the workshop is to promote communication among researchers in the area of corporate or business strategy and organizational implementation. The workshop accomplishes this purpose through providing those researchers with a communication place for presenting and discussing their research works. Although formal research conferences play the role of being such a place, this small-group meeting is particularly important for the research activities in their developing stage. Through participating in the workshop, researchers exchange their ideas and develop mutual understanding of the research in the area, which will eventually contribute to the enhancement of our knowledge on business organizations.
The workshop was organized in June 1995 by faculty members in the field of Markets and Corporations (Business Administration), Faculty of Economics, the University of Tokyo. Those are Professor E. Daito, Professor Y. Umezawa, Professor K. Wada, Professor H. Katahira, Associate Professor T. Fujimoto, Associate Professor N. Takahashi, and Associate Professor J. Shintaku. Other members of the workshop are graduate students and alumni of the faculty and researchers outside the university who are interested in business organizations. The total number of the members is about thirty at present. The workshop is held twice a month in average during a semester. In principle, the time is from four to six o'clock on Wednesday, and the place is the Audio-Visual Room or Co-Research Room No.1 of the faculty.
In each session of the workshop, one or several members present their own research work n the first half of the time, and then others participate in the discussion in the left time. Members are diverse in their approach to and interest in the strategic or organizational issues of business organizations. Their empirical studies cover firms in various industries: the automobile industry, the electric and electronic industries, the communication industry, the synthetic fiber industry, the chemical industry, the pharmaceutical industry, venture businesses, and so on. The followings are examples of the topics presented in the workshop in 1996.
Production Technology Evolution and Organization in the Automobile Industry.
Vertical Division Systems in the Synthetic Fiber Industry.
The Improvement of Organizational Learning through Ideal Confirmation.
Cooperative R&D Activities in the Pharmaceutical Industry.
Effective R&D Management in the Chemical Industry.
Small and Medium-Sized Firms as Network Makers.
The Change of Relationship between Corporations and Employees through Communication.
The Competitive Strategy of Firms in the Electric-Communication Industry.
The Strategy Formation and Implementation of Firms in the Chinese Automobile Industry.
Corporate System Evolution and Corporate Strategy in the Modern Chinese Automobile Industry.