Mechanisms for Long-Term Innovation Technology and Business Development of Reverse Osmosis Membranes / [electronic resource] :
by Masatoshi Fujiwara, Yaichi Aoshima.
- 1st ed. 2022.
- XIX, 372 p. 78 illus., 5 illus. in color. online resource.
- Advances in Japanese Business and Economics, 31 2197-8867 ; .
- Advances in Japanese Business and Economics, 31 .
The increasing demand for water treatment and reverse osmosis -- Technical overview of the RO membrane -- The beginnings of research in the public sector -- Development for commercialization by private companies -- The rise of Japanese companies.
This book explores how a long-term innovation can take place based on historical analyses of the development of reverse osmosis (RO) membrane from the early 1950s to the mid-2010s. The RO membrane is a critical material for desalination that is a key to solve water shortages becoming serious in many places of the world. The authors conducted in-depth field studies as well as analyses of rich archival data to demonstrate how researchers, engineers, managers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers interacted each other for this material innovation to be realized. A series of historical analyses in this book uncovered that initial government supports, strategic niche markets, emergence of breakthrough technology, and company-specific rationales played significant roles for companies to overcome four types of uncertainty, technological, market, competition, and social/organizational ones, and enabled the companies to persistently invest in the development and commercialization of the RO membrane. This book depicts that innovation does not arise on a sudden, but that it is actualized through long lasting process with turns and twists, which is driven by many non-economic rationales beyond economic motives.
9789811948961
Entrepreneurship. New business enterprises. Management. Industries. Technology. History. Sustainability. Water. Hydrology. Entrepreneurship. Management. Industries. History of Technology. Sustainability. Water.