A Consideration of Service Strategy of Japanese Electric Manufacturers to Realize Super Smart Society (SOCIETY 5.0)

“Innovation 25 [1]” is a long-term strategy initiative issued by the Cabinet Office of Japan for the creation of innovation contributing to the growth of the nation with an eye on the year 2025. As its concrete promotion plan, the Fifth Science and Technology Basic Plan [2]) emphasizes the development of future industry and societal transformation and requires successive efforts to realize a world-leading “super smart society (SOCIETY 5.0.)”. Under these circumstances, electrical manufacturers have adopted new approaches to materialize SOCIETY 5.0, with customer co-creation business as a key strategy on the basis of the service-dominant logic [3]. In the context of service business initiated by manufacturers, the concept of “value provided” is shifted from conventional “product creation” to “service creation”, where new service projects will be undertaken aiming at the co-creation of value with customers (users) and further the creation of value for customers by customers. Against this backdrop, in order to establish the innovation for “service creation,” the role of tacit knowledge (senseware) based on the knowledge science (knowledge creation theory) has become important.