How Japanese Companies have used Scientific Advances to Restructure their Businesses: The Receiver-Active National System of Innovation

SummaryThe rise in biomedical research predates the passage of the Bayh–Dole Act in the United States. Our measurements of science linkage based on the Japanese patents also show that biotechnology is extremely high in science linkage. We will describe an in-depth case study about how a Japanese sanitary ware company could commercialize a totally new toilet system, by use of scientific findings discovered by university professors. The firm played a more proactive role in technology transfer than the role implied by the term “absorptive capacity.” The Japanese national system of innovation has been built to stimulate absorptive capacity in functioning proactively.