Venture Review

　New Technology Based Firms（NTBFs） is well-known as the essential economic entity for 21st century and Japan has to develop them in to compete with other Western advanced countries and emerging countries such as China. In Japan, however, we can see "sporadic" establishments of NTBFs but "gregarious" area . where companies are b(no) orn one after another, grow rapidly and shape cluster.
　In this paper, I focus on Entrepreneurial Activities to consider what the key factor for NTBFs' cluster shaping is. I adopt GEM model (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor; international academic entrepreneurship research group) as a basic (static) model, and try to revise this to "gregarious (dynamic)" model by incorporating two factors, 1)"Resources Accessibility" such as Venture Capital, Consultant, Accounting firms and so on which have increased with the accumulation of start-ups in that region, 2) "Entrepreneurship Expectancy" which indicates people's favorable impression to entrepreneurship and increases when people see their acquaintance's start-up, forerunner's good examples or mass media's attention to entrepreneurship. These factors' growth could trigger chain reactions for inspired following companies' establishment. This dynamic model is applicable to NTBFs as well with taking some factors into consideration such as 1) an engineer is usually risk-avoider since he/she already holds a stable status, 2) engineer rarely has a capability of running company, 3) evaluation of technology's commercial viability is very difficult, especially when the technology is innovative one.
　In conclusion, 1) Spin off and starting up new company is generally not rational selection for engineers under this high opportunity cost and high risk conditions in Japan, 2) This causes insufficient of "Resources Accessibility" and "Entrepreneurial Expectancy", and these two problems should be taken care of immediately.

Key words:NTBFs, GEM, Entrepreneurial Activities, Entrepreneurial model, Resources Accessibility, Entrepreneurship Expectancy, gregarious mode

　Agriculture has been increasingly expected from several points of view. Agricultural innovations have not been sufficiently studied because of the recognition that agriculture is very specific.
　We propose and verify agricultural innovation model (DIST model) from 14 case studies. Our model contains not only T(Technology Push) and D(Demand Pull), but also I(Instinct Push) and S(Social Pull) that originated from characteristics of agriculture.
　DIST model shows us that the same first step follows common next steps in innovation process.
　We confirm that DIST model contributes to planning agricultural innovation strategy by identifying next step problems.

Key words:agriculture, innovation, model

　A qualitative study was conducted on middle managers' interactions with their seniors influencing development of middle managers as leaders. Among managers working for Japanese small-to-medium sized manufacturing firms operating globally, middle managers and their immediate senior managers who can objectively be considered developing as leaders were selected
as samples of the study, and then primary data obtained through multiple interviews to middle and senior managers.
　Findings of the research suggest that out of factors characterizing middle managers' interactions with their seniors, perceived mutual trust, perceived senior's resource and perceived reception are confirmed as elements strongly recognized by middle managers, while behind-the-scenes risk management and hidden emotional management are identified as those recognized only by seniors. Another suggestion obtained from the study is that such interactions, as a result, maintain a relationship where the middle manager is consistently the origin of a change, which may facilitate development of the middle manager as a leader. Future research is also discussed.

Key words:Leader, Leadership, Interaction, Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), Qualitative research

　In recent competitive and rapid changing business environment, it is extremely important for a large company to utilize research and development capacity of start-ups as an open-innovation activity through alliances with them. However, unlike the US or European counterparts, Japanese large corporations are not positive to alliances with start-ups.
　The reason is the typical management style of Japanese large companies such as an emergent strategy becomes an obstacle to alliances with start-ups. That is to say, to set up a partnership with start-ups is special compared with routine practices, and because of its special characteristic Japanese large companies cannot accomplish an alliance with their traditional management style.
　In this paper, we analyze the success case of alliance between the Japanese large company and the start-up, and propose a hypothesis that an intentional clarification of the strategic position of alliance activities can become one of the most effective methods for Japanese large companies to address the challenge.

Key words:large company, start-ups, alliance, emergent strategy, commitment

　The studies of career in existing research have been focused on personal career development of employee and career management by the companies. However, it is important to take notice of the career outside the organization like career changers and entrepreneurs under current diverse of career. Most of entrepreneurs have work experiences for many years in the company and their career should have large influences from the work experiences in the organization. The influences of the work experiences to build the vocational career and to get skills for the job have been studied from the view point of psychology, business administration and economics. However, these past studies examined not entrepreneurs but professionals and managers in the organization. Also, the learning attitude and motivation to develop personal career could increase the impact of learning effect. In case of entrepreneurs, awareness of entrepreneurship could be assumed to encourage the learning effect.
　This study intends to examine how the awareness of entrepreneurship and the work experiences affect to the performance of newly created enterprises by secondary analysis of entrepreneur survey. This study indicates that the awareness of entrepreneurship and differences of work experiences i.e. the size of company, manager experience influence to the performance of business.

Key words:Awareness of entrepreneurship, Entrepreneur, Vocational career, Learning through experiences

　Ours is changing from a society oriented on manufacturing to a society oriented on knowledge, one that values the integration of various information and findings. This study investigated color standards as intellectual property, focusing on market monopoly achieved as a result of standard status attainment, and domination as a process leading to monopoly.
　The concepts of communication and general standardization are addressed. The characteristic differences between color standards and digital devices are then elucidated. Subsequently, a comparison and analysis is done of DIC and Pantone, color guide (color communication tool)-based national and global color standards, respectively. Pantone is exclusively committed to color standards, and advocates the creation of a new color standard. Although their business model is simple and undiversified, their business, founded on the basis of intellectual property, sees a high possibility for growth. In today's increasingly competitive market environment, it is necessary to reduce the number of business domains and achieve specialization. In dominating the color standard market and gaining monopoly, specialization achieved through centralized business domains and flexibility, free from attachment to existing lines of business, is the key to successful standardization. This study reveals the presence of definite strategic intent in that process.
　Today we see a wealth of products and services. In such an era, knowledge, experience, expertise and information are becoming important business resources as intellectual capital. Whether or not one can recognize the value of, and utilize, the ability to earn profits from software, services and other intellectual property, rather than from tangible goods, has become an important factor in creating competitive advantages.

Key words:de fact standard，monopoly，domination，specialization，flexibility

　In respect of the revitalization of the local economy in Japan, the creation of a locally-based industry on the basis of local products has vital importance. In this context, the food industry which processes indigenous agricultural products is one of the promising areas.
　The rice-based food manufacturing industry in Niigata Prefecture presents an excellent example of how to create a competitive business through the extension of the incubation support, which was mainly technological one from the public　research institution in this case.
　In the process of their development, the rice product producers in Niigata built competitive advantage over the producers of other areas, and this success of them can be explained by adopting the so-called Diamond Model advocated by Professor Michael Porter.
　Through the case study on this Niigata rice product industry, this paper intends to induce a model which can be of value for the same kind of serious trials being undertaken in many areas in Japan with the hope of regaining the energy of the local economy and the society.
　In Niigata's case, the rice-based food industry has not only shown its strength by occupying a remarkably high market share but also started a trial of expanding its business coverage to such fields as health care and geriatrics, using the　research results produced through the close cooperation among businesses, university laboratories and the relevant public bodies.

Key words:Locally-based industry, Revitalization of local economy, Diamond Model by Michael Porter, Rice-based food manufacturing industry, Public research institution