This study claims an importance of carrying out technical developments in consideration of sensibility and emotion of patients, even in an aggressive medical technology related to the life and health. The study is based on the premise that even a choice of inferior techniques could lead to improving results of medical treatments and prognoses after treatments. The study discusses a possibility of semantic value creation, based on a case of severe aortic stenosis in the elderly patient, to discuss the possibility of semantic value creation in developing surgical procedures.

Multi-purpose products generate a competitive advantage by facilitating the creation of non-functional, or emotional, values in the market. Although previous studies imply a complex relationship between the product development process of multipurpose products in an organization and the value creation process in the market, only a few researchers have examined both of these processes simultaneously. To fill this research gap, this study selects the Mitsubishi Electric’s steamless IH rice cooker to explore the development as well as the value creation process of a multi-purpose product. Studies on the new product development (NPD) process shows that an NPD team designs multiple benefits in a product through an intra-team dialogue regarding concept generation, valuation and modification. Studies on the value creation also show that the outcome of the NPD process is intertwined with the value creation process in the market through the following four mechanisms: 1) the NPD team engages in an substantial intra-team dialogue, 2) the NPD team delivers a product concept to customers through marketing, 3) the NPD team makes a message consistent with the product design, and 4) competitors introduce a product with similar benefits.

This study focuses on the interrelationship between four aspects of consumer activities: consumption, transmission, creation and support. To conduct an online survey, a video-sharing website and comic business were selected as examples of the survey. The analysis results reveal factors that influence these four consumer activities. Accordingly, the study proposes a model to depict the interrelationship between these consumer activities and discusses appropriate strategies for the content industry and related firms.

This paper demonstrates the effect of design newness on consumers’ purchase intention, based on a survey research of electronic vehicles. In particular, we focus on the following two points. First, we examine design newness constructs and validates their multidimensionality as well as their effects on consumer preferences. Second, we examine the differences in the influence of design newness on two groups of consumers, classified by various levels of product knowledge. The results of this study highlight that design newness may be categorized into emotional design newness and functional design newness, and that these exert a different influence on the purchase intention of consumers, depending on their level of product knowledge. Therefore, the paper concludes that firms should consider the difference in these effects in formulating product strategies.

This paper quantitatively verifies the hypothesis that the impact of network externalities has decreased over time. Additionally, the paper takes the dissemination strategy of platform products into consideration. The results show that the impact of network externalities has decreased over time, and that this tendency was remarkable in the direct network externalities, in particular. Therefore, the paper proposes that it is crucial to execute not only initial strategies but also strategies to perform price revision and performance improvement frequently.

This study focuses on the management of developing hybrid products by combining 3D computer graphics and hand-drawing in the Japanese animation industry. The paper explores functions of product development during a coexisting period of new technology and similar current technology. It is clear that a manager of new technology department mainly contributes to the construction of architecture of a hybrid technology. In addition, so-called “adaptive” engineers mainly contribute to the reconciliation between engineers of the new technology and those of current technology.