Global Networks and Innovation Project - Assignment

Global Networks and Innovation project

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Short description of the content of the poster..............................................................................1
Critical review of one other poster...............................................................................................2
Complete analysis of the dataset provided including network matrix.........................................3
Potential future strategy of the firm for change or new opportunities.........................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

Short description of the content of the poster
Poster is a visualize presentation that includes textual & graphical elements and
particularly designed to inform about a particular aspect to the audience. It may be used for
varied purpose and used as a frequent tool to convey important messages to people. The current
poster developed targets Japanese economic analysis. The primary goal of the presentation is to
clearly visualize that how the economy is growing over the period. The core element that were
the key components of the poster includes focus on its major industries, innovation system,
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), GDP growth rate during 1996-2016 and its exports to other
nations.
In order to visualize the competitive advantages of Japan, Porter Diamond Theory had
been used that helps to focus on key factors available to the country such as technology, R&D,
availability of skilled laborers and others. It clearly presents that how the nation can act as a
catalyst to enhance their position in the competitive world. The things were organized well with
the visual graphs; to provide a quick indication to the audience, the major part that is Japan as a
Host Country and Porter Diamond Model were arranged in big sized bold font. For the clear
visualization, it is arranged in several sections including major industries, Japanese Innovation
Ecosystem, FDI in Japan, GDP 1996-2016, and Japanese Export. However, Porter’s Diamond
model focuses on factor contribution, demand, supporting industries, firm strategy & rivalry and
government. All the visuals that had been used clearly present the content for instane, GDP
during 1996-2016 display provides clear comparisons among the growth rate for Japan,
Germany, UK and India and depicts it as a 3rd largest country with huge R&D investment and
bilateral arrangements with SE Asian states. Export clearly presents massive volume in
automotive sector and electronic integrated circuits. Besides this, economic system presents that
government, university research institutions, R&D investment significantly contributed towards
infrastructural & educational improvements and fostering investment.
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Critical review of one other poster
Another poster presented focuses on the same country, Japan; however, it had narrowed
the scope because unlike the poster created by me, the other poster just look at the Japan’s
National Innovation System. Thus, the key difference between the two posters is my poster has
widened scope and evaluates Japan economic system as a host country whereas another poster
designed focused just on its Innovation System. Thus, the main strength of the other poster is it
gives a detailed & thorough overview of the system. Besides this, unlike my poster that just
presents the major industries of Japan, this poster gives an industry outlook of its services sector,
& retail and Steel & Energy market. In despite of this, comparative evaluation of both the poster
clearly evident that the poster provides detailed information on its Innovation system and
presents massive content with less use of graphical tools.
The poster presentation classified into several sub sections including Finance, Economic,
Steel & Energy market, Science & technology, Research & Development and Environment &
Manufacturing. The poster presents a country overview that clearly presents that the nation has
strong technological advancement and secured rank in the world’s top 10. The visualization
clearly evident that Sony, Fujitsu Ltd, Bridgestone Corporation, ÆON Group and others are
leading Japanese companies. It is a quick indicator to the audience that Japan experiences a
strong technological presence that generates revenue of 127.6 million every year. Thus, facts are
also been provided in it.
Unlike my poster, that just mentions detailed description of various sector in Major
Japanese Industries, other poster had a separate section for major industries provided detailed
overview. Even the title of the poster, Japan’s National Innovation System aware audiences
about its key components or focus, however, title “Japan as a Host Country” cannot be
considered as a quick indication of its covered content
However, on the other side, the weakness that had been noticed that other graph did not
makes use of many visualizations however, GDP picturization, Japanese Export 2016 and its
National Innovation System graph found useful and descriptive that provides a quick overview to
the reader about the content. Thus, lack of use of graphical tools had been seen as a key
weakness. Despite this, as it just focuses on Innovation system thus, it does not provided any
information to the audiences, about FDI, GDP, export and others. Moreover, only few industries
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or sectors were being focused but in detail whereas poster designed by me clearly stated major
contributing sector including automobile, electronics, computers, service sector, copper and Iron
& Steel. Thus, it is better that use of more graphic and visualize can makes the poster creative.
Complete analysis of the dataset provided including network matrix
Centrality measures: Such measure in the Net draw is really useful to determine that the
most important person in the developed network visualization (Klein, Ahlf and Sharma, 2015).
There are different kinds of centrality measures including betweenness, degree, eigenvector,
closeness and others.
See Appendix.
Between centrality measures total number of times where a node prevails on the shortest
possible path between other nodes. It is extremely useful to examine communication dynamics.
With reference to the created parent-subsidiary network diagram, it is seen that Fujitsu Limited
had scored highest betweenness centrality to 97,157 times. It clearly indicates that parent
company acts as a bridge between other nodes and helps to determine shortest possible path.
High betweenness centrality measures for the company indicates that it holds significantly
greater authority than other components and establish collaboration among all. Closeness
centrality, on the other side, measures scores based on closeness to other nodes or companies
within the network diagram (Brandes, Borgatti and Freeman, 2016). As per the network
visualization create, it is found that technology group limited, Utiility data service Ltd and Utility
Services Ltd had scored highest closeness centrality of 3734. It tells that total of all the possible
shortest path for each pair or vertices. Despite this, Eigenvector centrality is useful to examine
the influence of a node based on the links with other nodes (Borgatti, Everett and Johnson,
2018). In designed SNA diagram, Parent company, Fujitsu Ltd has a highest eigenvector
centrality measures of 0.395, thus, it has high influence over the entire network, not only with
those networks with which it is directly connected. Likewise, high degree centrality score of 32
to Fujitsu Ltd purely shows the greatest number of connection with other nodes in the network
(Reychav, Raban and McHaney, 2017).
The main reason behind different measures is there are number of factors which affects
the country operating in different nations. Thus, country-specific factors like demand,
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technological availability, inflation, growth rate and others has a major impact on the
interconnections between all the companies (Cai, De Janvry and Sadoulet, 2015).
Structural holes: It is a concept of social research which clearly determines such
individuals that holds some benefits/disadvantages due to their positions (Social Network
Analysis 2017). The theory is helpful to predict the interconnections that helps in providing
unique information while other companies may struggle to obtain the same information due to
position gap.
Density: Density of a network diagram simply computes the proportion of all possible
ties that exists in the given diagram. Density can be computed by dividing actual ties with the
possible number of ties (Ansari and et.al., 2018). For the given parent-subsidiary SNA, density
for each and every firm is measured to zero which did not present any difference.
Core-Periphery: It is also called center-periphery model that is a metaphor attempts to
clearly evaluate the structural relationship between center and other peripheries that are less
developed (Scott, 2017). The designed network diagram clearly visualizes that Fujitsu Ltd is the
primary or center part of the network whereas others are its peripheries.
Subgroups: Based on Block-based subgroups, Fujitsu Ltd had found with highest
number of sub-groups with total 484.
Potential future strategy of the firm for change or new opportunities
Based on the results, it becomes clear that Fujitsu Ltd is the central company that holds
significant power or control over all the other entities. Thus, company’s actions and strategic
plans will have direct impact over all the other subsidiaries operating in different areas. As per
Between Centrality measure, it is discovered that it had direct connection with the other
subsidiaries, and every plan and policies are conveyed by the companies to the subsidiaries for
becoming a leader in the market. However, low score for other nodes recommends company to
develop an effective communication network and establish a clear link among all the companies
so that any communication barrier or coordination problems can be mitigated. In this regard, it is
better to suggest the company to centralize all the subsidiary firm’s data in their parent company
which directly requires firm to communicate their performance and results to the parent or
holding company and stronger the communication practices.
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It will stronger the interaction between all the company’s managers and helps in making
decisive actions and planning for good growth. In future, companies have opportunities to further
expand their presence through opening more number of subsidiaries that will enable Fujitsu Ltd
to globally expand their market place.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ansari, A. and et.al., 2018. Building a social network for success. Journal of Marketing
Research. 15(4). pp.16-39.
Borgatti, S.P., Everett, M.G. and Johnson, J.C., 2018. Analyzing social networks. Sage.
Brandes, U., Borgatti, S.P. and Freeman, L.C., 2016. Maintaining the duality of closeness and
betweenness centrality. Social Networks. 44. pp.153-159.
Cai, J., De Janvry, A. and Sadoulet, E., 2015. Social networks and the decision to insure.
American Economic Journal: Applied Economics. 7(2). pp.81-108.
Klein, A., Ahlf, H. and Sharma, V., 2015. Social activity and structural centrality in online social
networks. Telematics and Informatics. 32(2). pp.321-332.
Reychav, I., Raban, D.R. and McHaney, R., 2017. Centrality Measures and Academic
Achievement in Computerized Classroom Social Networks: An Empirical Investigation.
Journal of Educational Computing Research. p.0735633117715749.
Scott, J., 2017. Social network analysis. Sage.
Online
Social Network Analysis. 2017. [Online]. Avilable through: < https://cambridge-
intelligence.com/keylines-faqs-social-network-analysis/>.
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