Innovation Policy Challenges

particularly important in technology management strategy for 
emerging markets. In many cases, Japanese products cannot 
penetrate “good-enough markets” as they are high-priced and have 
excessive functionality and/or quality. Products with high added value 
do not necessarily need to be highly priced, and firms need to focus 
on lowering costs while raising added value in product development. 
Also, the dramatically changing environment in emerging markets 
with rapid economic growth requires a system in which the 
development of new products rapidly takes account of local needs. It 
is important for Japanese firms to develop a systematic response 
method that increases the speed of decision-making, if they want to 
avoid trailing behind US and European firms, where authority is more 
easily transferred to local branches. 

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