Nagoya University of Commerce and Business

A 'household budget analogy' is a rhetorical device that equates government budgets with household ones, often to justify fiscal consolidation by emphasizing the risk of state bankruptcy. Expanding on the survey experiment by Barnes and Hicks (2021) in the United Kingdom, we examine the effects of highlighting not only state bankruptcy but also government-owned assets. We hypothesize that the latter makes the public more accepting of government bonds, whereas the former reinforces fiscal concerns. To test this, we conducted an online survey experiment in Japan, a country with high government debt and substantial assets. Our findings do not support these claims: on average, respondents did not adjust their attitudes in response to the treatments. However, those who endorsed the household analogy became more hostile to government bonds under both conditions. Additionally, female respondents were more susceptible to the bankruptcy treatment and became more cautious about government bonds.

Since 2020, Woven by Toyota, a subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation, has been establishing Woven City in Susono City, Shizuoka, Japan. While previous research characterizes Woven City as a corporate smart city, Toyota frames it as a test course for human-centered mobility innovation, integrating advanced technologies and sustainable urban solutions. The present study explores the anticipated roles and potential impacts of Woven City through surveys and interviews with Susono City government officials, Toyota employees, university professors, civil society personnel, and local citizens. Using thematic analysis, this study identifies Woven City as a pioneering case of a “glocal” innovation ecosystem for integrated sustainable development. It emphasizes its role in balancing technological innovation, economic growth, community engagement, and environmental sustainability. As the first urban initiative led by a mobility company with a unique resident recruitment model and strict control over governance, this study provides valuable insights into how systems theory can inform the design, management, and analysis of urban initiatives. The study contributes to advancing urban planning by presenting a theoretical and practical framework that aligns locally developed technologies and innovation in Woven City with global sustainability goals. By addressing pressing issues, such as fostering economic growth, reducing environmental degradation, and promoting social equity, Woven City demonstrates how localized technological solutions can achieve a global impact. The findings provide actionable insights for urban planners, policymakers, and developers, offering a replicable framework for scaling innovative urban solutions to address global challenges while meeting local needs.

The logistics industry in Hong Kong faced significant disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in major delays in delivering essential goods, particularly hygiene products critical for preventing infections. The challenges brought on by the pandemic further aggravated an existing labour shortage in the industry. The physical demands of work performed by porters, including packing and delivering goods, made remote work unfeasible, unlike in many other professions. This situation highlighted the broader impact of COVID-19 on labour-intensive jobs that could not align with the growing work-from-home (WFH) trend. It raised pressing questions about addressing the immediate labour shortage, especially regarding delivering essential hygiene products to the public. The case encouraged discussions on potential solutions to mitigate the labour crisis while ensuring the consistent and timely supply of critical goods to the community amidst ongoing challenges.

This study examines asymmetric supply chain competition between integrated and non-integrated supply chains under emission taxes when firms choose competition mode in the final goods market endogenously. We find that higher emission taxes may lead the non-integrated downstream firm to adopt aggressive pricing to induce its upstream firm to lower prices, leveling competition with an integrated one. When the non-integrated chain integrates, however, quantity contracts become dominant strategies, which might distort welfare under lower emission taxes if both environmental damage and product substitutability are sufficiently high. Our finding indicates the welfare-reducing effects of government interventions post-integration when emission tax policy and endogenous competition mode are relevant.

How do CEOs’ unique early-life experiences—particularly those shaped by formative influences such as military training—impact their subsequent strategic decision-making in green innovation? By integrating upper-echelon theory, imprinting theory, and the green innovation literature, this paper explores whether and when a CEO’s military background influences a firm’s adoption of green innovation practices, specifically within an emerging market context. Analyzing a sample of 1419 Chinese listed firms over the period from 2007 to 2016, our results reveal a significant positive effect of a CEO’s military experience on the firm’s green innovation performance. Furthermore, we find that a firm’s positive financial performance amplifies the influence of the CEO’s military imprint on green innovation outcomes. However, the intensity of government environmental regulation moderates this effect, weakening the relationship between the CEO’s personal values and the firm’s green innovation performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Global uncertainty and the COVID-19 pandemic have significantly impacted the integration of emerging economies into global financial markets. Post-pandemic, the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes have drawn investor attention to relatively independent and stable currencies. This study investigates the sustained independence of the Renminbi by analyzing the spillover effects between the Renminbi and other major currencies in the context of the pandemic and USD interest rate hikes. By employing high-frequency data and cross-validating the results with low-frequency data transformed through Synchro Squeezing Wavelet Transform, we aimed to enhance the robustness of our findings. This analysis provides valuable insights for investors, highlighting the stability advantages of the Renminbi in the context of de-dollarization and global currency diversification.

The AuSS market witnessed substantial growth in 2022, with a strong estimated annual expansion from 2023 to 2030. Prominent companies like Amazon, Spotify, and YouTube are intensifying their competition by acquiring smaller firms in the audio content industry. To navigate this intense AuSS market competition, this study aims to categorize AuSS content genres and investigates the impact of content genre and update features on content performance (measured by content usage and subscriber size). Based on econometric analysis, we explore how the relationship between content genre and content performance is influenced by content update features. Empirical data was collected from Naver’s Audioclip, South Korea’s leading internet portal. For the research results, the content performance was different depending on the content genre. The more the regularity and frequency of content updates, the better the content performance. The effect of content update frequency on content performance differed by each content genre. Based on the findings of this study, we suggest the academic and managerial implications for content strategies to enhance the AuSS content performance of related companies.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, significant scholarly attention has been given to whether virtual study abroad can replace traditional study abroad. By contrast, the question of whether domestic activities involving interaction with foreign students, known as intercultural exchange, can be an alternative in the post-pandemic era has received much less empirical attention. This study addresses this gap by analyzing factors influencing the interests of over 600 Japanese students in both traditional study abroad and intercultural exchange. Our ordered logit analysis suggests that intercultural exchange can serve as an attractive substitute for traditional study abroad, given the following findings. First, several of the same factors affect students’ interest in both activities. Second, and perhaps more importantly, barriers to studying abroad significantly boost students’ interest in intercultural exchange but not in study abroad. In other words, when students are concerned about going abroad, they turn to intercultural exchange, which is relatively easy to participate in. Ultimately, these findings underscore the value of universities focusing on quality global experiences within home countries in the post-pandemic era.

Plain language summary First language morphological awareness matters in third language word meaning inferencing Morphological awareness refers to the ability to reflect upon, analyze and manipulate morphemes and morphological structure of words. It is a significant predictor in monolingual and bilingual reading development. However, it is unclear how morphological awareness developed in one’s first language (L1) facilitates reading subskills acquisition in second and third languages (L2 and L3). This research examined the facilitative role of morphological awareness in L3 lexical inferencing (i.e., the ability to guess unknown word meanings during reading) with 56 L1 Japanese-L2 English-L3 Chinese university learners. They completed a set of tests including morphological awareness tasks in three different languages (i.e., Japanese, English, Chinese), English vocabulary knowledge, English lexical inferencing, Chinese vocabulary knowledge and Chinese lexical inferencing, and also filled out a self-reported proficiency questionnaire survey. The findings of the study indicated that L3 Chinese vocabulary knowledge alone is insufficient for successful L3 Chinese lexical inferencing, and L1 Japanese morphological awareness is a unique and additional predictor of L3 Chinese lexical inferencing. Also, the findings of this research suggested that L2 English morphological awareness or L2 English lexical inferencing is not significantly correlated with L3 Chinese lexical inferencing. Therefore, it is recommended that instructors and learners raise their awareness of the facilitative role of L1 Japanese metalinguistic resources and utilize these resources to develop L3 Chinese reading.

This research investigates how despotic leadership influences follower creativity within the hospitality context. Grounded in social exchange theory (SET), the research delves into the mediating role of psychological safety in the link between despotic leadership and follower creativity. Additionally, it explores how power distance moderates this relationship, potentially alleviating the adverse implications of despotic leadership. By analyzing data collected from 447 employees in China, our findings reveal that despotic leadership behaviors diminish follower creativity. The results emphasize the crucial role of psychological safety as a mediating factor in this relationship. Furthermore, the study uses moderated path analysis to reveal that high power distance intensifies the negative impact of despotic leadership on psychological safety, further reducing employees’ creativity. The research concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for both theoretical and practical applications. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40359-024-02242-2.

Collective phronesis is the collection of the best‐distributed phronesis of humans and is also integrated phronesis for all management that combines the collective wisdom of individuals within and even between organizations. In a good organization, rather than only certain heroes with phronesis creating new knowledge, phronesis is organized to realize innovation by bringing together the high‐quality wisdom and practical power of various practitioners at all levels of the organization, as well as in its customers and partners. This makes it possible to build dynamic fractal organizations – tough collectives that can respond creatively and with agility in real‐time, no matter what occurs, including rapid changes in the environment. However, little is known from previous studies regarding the formation mechanisms of collective phronesis and dynamic fractal organizations. In this paper, we present a new theoretical model of the formation mechanism of collective phronesis, and dynamic fractal organizations based on inductive research through field surveys and in‐depth case studies, expanding on the concept of boundaries knowledge, which has been explored in existing research.

We present evaluations of cryptocurrencies based on the performance index derived from the Aumann–Serrano—henceforth, AS—economic index of riskiness. Bitcoin is rated quite poorly—much riskier—compared to other cryptocurrencies, although it is the most popular and has the largest market capitalization among all the cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, the stock market ETF, SPY, is rated the best—least risky—and much better than cryptocurrencies by the AS performance index, contrasting sharply to the evaluation made by the Sharpe ratio.

We consider a vertically related market, in which each downstream firm produces a differentiated product by assembling a key input produced by a common supplier and another input produced by a dedicated upstream firm. On the one hand, vertical integration has the advantage of inducing the common supplier to set a lower input price, but the disadvantage of reducing downstream firms' competitiveness in the downstream market. On the other hand, vertical separation has the advantage of increasing downstream firms' competitiveness in the downstream market but the disadvantage of inducing the common supplier to set a higher input price. Contrary to results of previous studies, we find that the existence of a common supplier can lead to vertical integration under Cournot competition, which emerges as a unique equilibrium when a common supplier adopts input discrimination. Although vertical integration is better for the individual firms, it reduces the total welfare. Even when the common supplier uses uniform input pricing, vertical integration also emerges in equilibrium.

Purpose Drawing on the perspectives of cultural capital theory, this study investigated the impact of international internships on the performance of Japanese undergraduates on the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) using a between-group pretest-posttest experimental design. Design/methodology/approach Students participating in international internships were compared to their counterparts in a noninternational internship control group. Using TOEIC data collected in June 2019 and September 2019, we performed t-tests and estimated a difference-in-differences model with propensity score matching to measure the impacts of participation in international internships, students’ demographic information, family socioeconomic status, and independent learning characteristics. Findings The study showed that students’ participation in international internships and independent learning activities had significant effects on TOEIC performance. The findings of this study also indicate that in addition to the effects of international internship experience and independent learning on students’ English performance, learner learning behavior may be important for improving students’ performance. Research limitations/implications This empirical research provides meaningful insights for parents, educators, and researchers not only in Japan but also in a broader context in which international internships and independent learning activities have a crucial impact on student performance. It also sheds light on our understanding of the role of activities conceptualized through the lens of cultural capital in educational stratification. Originality/value This study elucidates the association among cultural capital theory, international internships, and students’ linguistic achievement and makes an important contribution to the broader conceptual literature.