Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Taylor & Francis (Informa UK Limited)  

Studies have suggested borrowing concepts from the wine industry for saké marketing communication. In fact, saké breweries attempt to expand consumer reach by adopting wine-centric terms like terroir. Furthermore, the terms premium and luxury are used synonymously to describe certain saké brands without proper definitions. However, Japanese saké is not a wine but a distinct alcoholic beverage unique to Japan, and undefined and borrowed terms fail to convey its distinct character. Discussion on what criteria to apply when conveying the luxury value of saké to consumers is lacking. Therefore, this study aims to discover what constitutes “luxury” in the unique context of saké by conducting unstructured interviews with three well-established breweries. The larger question this study explores is how the luxury value of experiential products closely linked to a nation’s culture can be conveyed to consumers in foreign markets. The findings indicate that while authenticity applies to local saké and wine alike, saké exists within a different ecosystem marked by harmony among saké production, nature conservation and community building. Thus, the luxury value of saké is tied to sustainability and regional preservation.

DOI： 10.1080/20511817.2024.2437904

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Authorship：Corresponding author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：The Japanese Standing Conference on Organizational Symbolism  

This conceptual article aims to reintegrate existing path theories meta-theoretically, furthermore proposing an alternative theory termed ‘Dialectical Path Analysis.’ In existing path studies, determinist path dependence and voluntarist path creation meta-theoretically constitute an unhappy dualism. This article reintegrates the two existing path theories based on analytical dualism, a meta-theoretical concept of human nature of critical realism. From analytical dualism, the path formation process is not formed by completely alienating self-reinforcing mechanisms, nor do voluntarist actors create it from nothing. It is continuously reproduced or transformed by the dialectic interplay between existing social, economic, cultural, and material structures and the emergent properties of human agencies representing various backdrops. This article underscores not only the implication of comprehensive and deepening consideration of social phenomena, including management, economy, and industry, but also the importance for scholars themselves to embrace a reflexive and dialectical epistemology.

DOI： 10.36605/jscos.4.0_9

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Authorship：Lead author,　Corresponding author   Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Emerald  

Purpose

With the ongoing industrial transformation of the Japanese sake industry and the continuous growth of exports in recent years, terroir, one of the core concepts in the wine culture, has been strategically used in the sake industry. Therefore, as an essential investigation, the purpose of this study is to elucidate when, how and why terroir has been used in the sake industry. This study starts with the research question: When, how and why has terroir come to be used strategically in the sake industry?Design/methodology/approach

This study investigates the use of terroir in the Japanese sake industry, examining all 196 newspapers that referenced terroir from 1998 to 2022, sourced from the renowned newspaper database Nikkei Telecom 21. This study’s outcomes have been visualized through categorization work and text mining.

Findings

In this study, the use of terroir in the Japanese sake industry has gained significant momentum since 2015, with a remarkable surge observed in the 2020s. With the continuous growth in sake exports, industry players such as sake brewers are strategically structuring terroir to reinforce the authenticity of the brewing process, emphasizing the uniqueness of natural elements, such as water, sake rice and the natural environment. These findings highlight the critical role of terroir in the Japanese sake industry’s added value expansion.

Originality/value

This study provides objective insights regarding the recent industrial transformation for the practical sake industry, such as sake exporters and distributors. Additionally, this study enables the wine industry’s audience to understand the sake industry’s evolution in terms of wine culture.

DOI： 10.1108/ijwbr-12-2022-0048

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Other Link： https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJWBR-12-2022-0048/full/html

Language：English   Publishing type：Research paper (scientific journal)   Publisher：Springer Science and Business Media {LLC}  

Abstract

This study explores the value co-creation framework to revive tradition-bound products using rhetorical history and service-dominant logic. This framework shows the effects of using historical significance to enable value co-creation in a new ecosystem by engaging consumers and local communities without eliminating their traditions. Existing studies merely discuss the methodology of a rhetorical emphasis on the authenticity of traditional industrial firms’ history to attract customers. This study explains the motivation to engage in value co-creation to transform tradition-bound businesses. Through these processes, businesses’ boundaries are thawed, and the customer becomes the advocate and thus, the driver of reviving tradition-bound products.

DOI： 10.1007/s11628-022-00504-w

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Other Link： https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11628-022-00504-w/fulltext.html

Authorship：Corresponding author   Language：Japanese   Publishing type：Research paper (bulletin of university, research institution)  

This article briefly reviews Garud & Karnøe (2001) to discuss the "dualism" between path dependence and path creation and to further clarify the "duality" between meta-theory and the researcher's position in path study. In path dependence, path is regarded as a historical process gradually and dependently formed through accumulating past events and the self-reinforcing mechanism induced by those events. On the other hand, in path creation, path is seen as a future-oriented process newly and continuously constructed by active and reflexive entrepreneurs who want to deviate from the existing path structure. Tracing back to meta-theory, particularly to human nature as one of the meta-theories, path dependence can be seen as a theory that relies on objectivism and determinism. In contrast, path creation is a theory that relies on subjectivism and voluntarism. From the discussion of methodology, deterministic path dependence is a theory taking the research method that objectively describes the historical formation of paths but eliminates the reflexive actor's subjectivity and agency. In this case, the researcher is the "perspective of outsider" objectively describing the path formation process. Conversely, voluntarist path creation is a theory emphasizing the reflexive entrepreneur's agency connecting the past to the present and to the future. Thus, the researcher plays the role of the "perspective of insider" taking a research approach that re-experiences the experiences of those entrepreneurs, such as subjectivistic case study or narrative approache. As a meta-theoretic discussion, this article provides an essential cornerstone for re-integrating path dependence and path creation.

CiNii Books

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Language：Japanese  

CiNii Article

CiNii Books

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Language：Japanese   Publisher：日本台湾交流協会総務部  

CiNii Article

CiNii Books

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Event date： 2023.2

Language：English   Presentation type：Poster presentation  

Venue：Nashville, Tennessee   Country：United States  

File： Reviced_ 2023Winter Poster_Extended-Abstract.pdf

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Language：English   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

Venue：Takushoku University Bunkyo campus   Country：Japan  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Oral presentation (general)  

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Event date： 2021.3

Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech  

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Language：Japanese   Presentation type：Public lecture, seminar, tutorial, course, or other speech  

Country：Japan  

In this seminar, the contents of the academic article Strategic utilization of terroir in Japanese sake industry, which was accepted by International Journal of Wine Business Research in May 2023, was introduced.
Please check the following URL for more detailed information of this seminar.

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Other Link： https://sake.niigata-u.ac.jp/en/news/3595/

Country：Japan

Reviving tradition-bound products: a case of value co-creation using rhetorical history, published in Service Business (SSCI) in 2022, with Chikako Ishizuka, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Economic Sciences, as the first author, received the 2023 Niigata University Best Paper Award.

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