Social Network Analysis on Japan

INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION

(GROUP 02- JAPAN)

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION

Impacts of Japan on Toyota was the topic on my presentation for the lightning talk. In the presentation me and my group members talked about the automobile industry in japan using Toyota as the main example and impacts and issues faced by it and the strategies used by Toyota to overcome it. The electronic vehicle revolution in Japan is also one of the topics we focused on in the presentation. Japan is the 3rd largest economy in the world in terms of nominal GDP. They are very innovative as they have given birth to many technologies. Japan is one of the leading automobiles manufactures of the world but in contrary its own domestic marketing is doing bad compared to the global market due to many factors. Natural calamities and diminishing population being two of the main ones. These two are also reasons for economic, financial and social problems in Japan. The earthquake which happened in Japan on 2011 rattled the surface of Japans automotive industry; factories destroyed, and supply chain dismantled. This impacted Toyota the most and caused over 1 million lost units and loss of over 3500 million dollars. This shattered the whole automobile environment leading Toyota to make strategies to overcome future calamities. Over the past few years Japan has been facing a catastrophe of diminishing population which in turn causing shortage of human resources and shrinkage of domestic markets.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS (GROUP 03)

In the presentation GERMANY: THE HOUSE OF INNOVATION AND RESEARCH group 03 talked about different innovative strategies and steps Germany is going to take to improve its already high status in the technological world. Few of these strategies include encouraging open innovation systems, usage of general tech for a multitude of industries, creating conditions that enable growth and innovation, helping start-ups grow from conception stage encouraging and retraining skillset of people and encouraging innovations by rewarding capital. As these strategies sound theoretically executable, they’re not very practical and doesn’t guarantee success. For example, by encouraging open innovative systems, although it’s a new type of innovative process, there will still be critical views about the newness of the described mechanism and doubts whether the strategy is genuinely innovative, as determined by which its principles have already been observed. The open innovation system is made on latent assumptions that should be analyzed. To execute these strategies, it should be important to conduct simulations in order to replace and amplify the experiences, so that it can replicate or evoke the substantial aspects of the strategies. In the case of encouraging and retraining the skillset of people, there are several advantages and disadvantages to this. Such programs help people to develop and improve new skills that will help innovation move forward however, specialized skills take years to progress and master. Improving skillset of people increases overall productivity but Job assistance programs and training are expensive and don’t always produce results that account for the costs. A better alternative to this strategy is to enable the population to have guided access and materials to develop their skills, also to provide apprenticeships which won’t take as long as retraining programs.

A SHARED PLATFORM FOR GERMANY AS A RESEARCH HUB:

Six German centers of research and innovation (DWIH) has been established in 4 locations around the world; two of them in Asia: Tokyo and New Delhi, In New York and in Sao Paulo, Moscow and Cairo. These centres of research and innovation backs up the German government’s efforts to maintain its power in innovation and to apply its knowledge internationally and to have a competitive lead in the global markets. Germany’s concept to function this move will surely lead to its success and improvement and create bridges between international innovative structures and technological advancement.

NETWORK ANALYSIS

Network analysis aims at analyzing the network structure by description, modeling and visualization (Marijtje A. J., 2006). Network data can be viewed as a relational system defined by some factors and sub factors. (Wasserman& Faust, 1994)

STRUCTURAL HOLES

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Fig no. 01: Structural holes

When there is a lack of contact or touch between more than one factor a structural hole exists (Burt, 1992). The structural hole theory was developed to explain how to gain benefits from the network competitions and intersecting relationships (Burt, 1992). This theory can be applied to the relationships between different entities in a social network like organizations, individuals’ organizations, groups, corporations, entrepreneurs or other entities. Structural hole is not the relationship of strength but rather the lack of tie between two elements (Burt, 1992). In an organization the person who works with the structural hole has the highest chance of having good concepts and ideas (Burt, 2004; Liu, Chiu, & Chiu, 2010; Cowan & Jonard, 2007).