THE SHIFT OF POSITIONING OF JAPANESE GENERAL CONTRACTORS' R&D ACTIVITIES

Abstract

Japanese general contractors, the giants in particular, have been leading R&D activities since the period of high economic growth. Assuming that their R&D activities are directed to their customers' needs and that the specific needs create specific value network of the market, this paper analyzed patents applied for relating the two contrasting building markets, i.e. condominiums and semiconductor factories, differentiating the role of general contractors. The analyses using‘entropy’of the groups of patents in regard to the patent classification and the networks of joint appliers has revealed the fact that the positioning of general contractors' R&D in the condominium building market has shifted from the internally-and-externally integral to the internally-and-externally modular quadrant whereas with semiconductor factories their positioning appears to have converged in the externally modular and internally integral quadrant, suggesting that their R&D activities do depend upon the value network of their customer industries.

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