Innovation and knowledge creation through leadership-based strategic community: Case study on high-tech company in Japan

In this paper, the author wishes to present a basic framework in which the integration of various organizational boundaries between heterogeneous organizations both inside and outside a corporation creates new knowledge. This paper describes a detailed case study involving joint new product and service development of a mobile multimedia system by NTT DoCoMo, a mobile communication carrier in Japan, and Mitsubishi Electric, a large electrical appliances manufacturer. This case study illustrates the dynamism in which new knowledge is created by simultaneously promoting the forming of a horizontally integrated network among strategic communities between the two corporations including customers and a vertically integrated network among strategic communities with the corporation. The synthesizing capability of the leadership-based strategic communities comprising leaders inside the networked strategic communities enabled NTT DoCoMo and Mitsubishi Electric to build new business models aimed at customers and achieve successful new product and service development.