How two Japanese high‐tech companies achieved rapid innovation via strategic community networks

Purpose – To produce rapid innovation, Japanese companies have learned to manage strategic communities for new product development. These communities require the merging and integration of different technologies and the coordination of relationships among all levels of management, alliance partners, and customers.Design/methodology/approach – Through case studies of two Japanese companies, the author examines the successful new product development process practised by these strategic communities and their networks.Findings – As the cases reveal, strategic teams at each company – consisting mainly of cross‐functional middle managers from a number of business divisions – formed strategic communities inside and outside the companies that included customers, and then formed networks that transcended the strategic communities' boundaries. In record time, strategic community leaders enabled companies to build new business models aimed at customers and then achieve successful new product development.Research lim...