About the seminar

Strategic value creation networks have become critically important in technology development and economic growth; co-creation relies the relationship infrastructure of people, organizations and policies. These complex intangible relationship assets can be observed through network analysis of small, medium and large enterprises. By identifying relationships through which information and financial resources flow, visual insights toward a shared vision can be created and strategic network orchestration can be implemented. Using social network analysis, these relationship patterns can reveal competitive forces, gatekeepers and collaboration opportunities - within and across sectors - in internal and external innovation ecosystems around the world, including China 2.0.

Dr. Russell's presentation is available here.

About the speaker

Martha G. Russell is a senior research scholar at the Human Sciences Technology Advanced Research Institute and associate director of Media X at Stanford University, a membership-based, interdisciplinary research catalyst focused on people, media, technology, and innovation.
 
Dr. Russell’s background spans a range of business development, innovation, and technology-transfer initiatives in information sciences, communications, and microelectronics at the University of Minnesota, the University of Texas at Austin, and Stanford University. She collaborates with Stanford’s Innovation Ecosystems Network and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Interactive Advertising, the Journal of Electronics, and Technology Forecasting and Social Change.

In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Wataru Ishii, "Promotion of Tourism in Japan:  Policies and Plans for Development and Involvement of Local Institutions"

Tourism is an industry that covers a lot of areas, such as hotels, transportation, food services and one of a few industries where growth can be expected in the future.  Because of the economic importance of tourism, the Japanese National Government established the Japan Tourism Agency in 2008 and has begun to try to make Japan "Tourism Nation" and local governments are following suit.  Ishii studies the significance of tourism in Japan and policies to attract foreign tourists that will compensate for stagnant domestic tourists.

Yuichi Moronaga, "The Essential Value - Connecting and Sharing Emotions - Storytelling in the Social Media Era"

Customers have high expectations when making purchases.  They expect products to provide value and, at the same time, satisfy their sense of emotions.  Storytelling is an important factor when it comes to these customer purchases.  Knowing the story behind the product or company can create strong attachments and this "essential value" is an important factor in the buying cycle.  These emotions may encourage our next behavior, whether it's repeat buying or long-term usage.  With the increased usage of social media, this type of cycle that is created is vital for a company's marketing plan as well as providing increased motivation of a company's employees.  In this presentation, Moronaga shares examples of storytelling, demonstrating how dynamically storytelling is changing people's purchasing behaviors and the opportunities presented.

Hirofumi Takinami, "Political Economy of the Financial Crises in Japan and the United States:  Why the Difference in Speed to Respond and Recover?"

Within the last two decades, the United States and Japan each experienced the same type of financial crisis, notably triggered by the collapse of major financial institutions.  Both were under the political economic conditions of one of the largest economies in the world as well as of an advanced democratic country.  However, it is symbolically different that Japan let the institutions go into chain-reaction bankruptcies without injecting public money in 1997, while the U.S. undertook a bailout of AIG just after the Lehman bankruptcy in 2008.  And now the U.S. economy is showing earlier recovery compared to what Japan experienced. -- What made this difference in speed to respond and recover?  To explain this puzzle, Takinami focuses on (a) existence of precedent & learning, (b) speed and process of economic downturn toward the crisis, (c) action by national leader & secretarial organization, and (d) status of global standard setter, together with assessing the alternative explanations.  Then, he argues some implications of these analyses.

The recent uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East represent one of the most dramatic global political developments since the fall of the Berlin Wall.  What factors and forces led to the sudden collapse of well-entrenched regimes and the emergence of democratic reform movements across a region long accustomed to hereditary succession and autocratic rule?  Does the current upheaval reflect unique circumstances in the Arab World?  Or should it be viewed in the wider context of governance issues and challenges that have arisen in Asian and other settings beyond North Africa and the Middle East?  As a governance specialist whose international career has spanned Arab and Asian societies, David Arnold will share his insights regarding these questions.  

David D. Arnold became the president of The Asia Foundation on January 1, 2011, after serving as the president of the American University in Cairo (AUC) for seven years. At AUC he superintended the construction of a new, state-of-the-art $400 million campus, including the region's largest English-language library; spearheaded a $125 million fundraising campaign, the largest in the University's history; and oversaw academic innovations including AUC’s first-ever PhD program and master’s programs in education, biotechnology, gender studies, digital journalism, and refugee studies.  Under his leadership, AUC also expanded its continuing education and community outreach activities and created new scholarship opportunities for its students.  Mr. Arnold’s earlier career included six years as executive vice president of the Institute of International Education and more than ten years of service in the Ford Foundation including stints in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka.  He earned his Master’s in Public Administration at Michigan State University following a BA from the University of Michigan.