Institutional elasticity towards IT waves for Japan's survival—the significant role of an IT testbed

Watanabe, C. & Kondo, R. (2003). Institutional elasticity towards IT waves for Japan's survival—the significant role of an IT testbed. Technovation 23 (4) 307-320. 10.1016/S0166-4972(01)00073-6.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

While the dramatic advances in information technology (IT) in recent years has provided all nations with a large number of potential benefits, effective utilization of these benefits greatly depends on institutional elasticity.

Notwithstanding a high institutional elasticity towards “catching-up,” Japan's institutional system lost its elasticity under a new paradigm that emerged in the 1990s, and remediation of this problem has become crucial as advances in IT and subsequent economic globalization has highlighted global, invisible, interactive, disseminative and coevolutional features, leading to an increased significance of institutional elasticity.

A testbed can play a significant role in inducing and diffusing new technology, and given the unique features of IT, an IT testbed is particularly important. With such systems functions as predictability, observability and triability, an IT testbed can provide services to demonstrate hidden benefits, instill confidence by providing visuality, and stimulate learning exercises leading to construction of a virtuous cycle between IT inducement and diffusion. These services correspond to requirements for complementing the constraints of Japan's institutions. Thus, an IT testbed can unexpectedly play a significant role in the remediation of Japan's lost institutional elasticity.

This paper analyzes the significant role of institutional elasticity, and on the basis of a case evaluation of the Japan Gigabit Network, demonstrates the hypothesis that an IT testbed can contribute to the remediation of Japan's institutional elasticity.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	IT; Institutions; Institutional elasticity; IT testbed
Research Programs:	General Research (GEN)
Bibliographic Reference:	Technovation; 23(4):307-320 [2003]
Depositing User:	IIASA Import
Date Deposited:	15 Jan 2016 02:15
Last Modified:	27 Aug 2021 17:37
URI:	https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/6838

Actions (login required)

View Item