The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation
Abstract
How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.
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The SECI model describes organizational knowledge creation through four modes: Socialization, Externalization, Combination, and Internalization.
“Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) proposed that organizational knowledge is created through a continuous spiral of four conversion modes.”
From From Organizational Knowledge to AI Agent Memory: Empirical Validation of the SECI Model on the LongMemEval Benchmark (2026) · cites this paper as Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995
The SECI model of knowledge creation provides empirically testable design principles for AI agent memory architecture.
“We propose that the SECI model of knowledge creation (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995) provides empirically testable design principles for AI agent memory architecture.”
From From Organizational Knowledge to AI Agent Memory: Empirical Validation of the SECI Model on the LongMemEval Benchmark (2026) · cites this paper as Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995
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- Authors
- Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H.
- ORCID
- Nonaka, Ikujiro
- Publisher
- Oxford University PressNew York, NY
- Published
- 1995-05-18
- OpenAlex
- W4388147587
- Cited by
- 18,010
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 886 · 2025: 677 · 2024: 522 · 2023: 518 · 2022: 583 · 2021: 615 · 2020: 648 · 2019: 663 · 2018: 727 · 2017: 830 · 2016: 695 · 2015: 781 · 2014: 751 · 2013: 846 · 2012: 854
- FWCI
- 190.42
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Innovation and Knowledge Management
- Social Sciences › Communication › Knowledge Management and Sharing
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Management and Organizational Practices
- Keywords
- knowledge production, tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, knowledge management, Japanese companies, innovation, organizational learning, knowledge transfer, Honda, canons, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, General Electric, United States Marine Corps, Japanese economic success, automotive industry, electronics industry
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