This study empirically analyzes how business management and data utilization efforts affect innovation behavior in the Japanese wholesale industry using individual data from a survey of business establishments. The analysis covered 2954 valid responses from business establishments to a questionnaire survey conducted in FY 2018. The study revealed that in the wholesale industry overall, process innovation was more actively implemented in establishments with higher levels of organizational management structure development, frequency of feedback through data use, and degree of data utilization. Analysis by sector revealed that the impact of business management and data use on innovation behavior varied across sectors. It also revealed that business management and data use did not have a significant relationship with innovation behavior in the textile and clothing wholesale sector, which handles products that are easily influenced by trends and temperatures in a complex supply chain.

This research examines the societal impacts of varying energy policy approaches and the progress of the energy transition toward a low carbon energy-based regime internationally. Using indicators relevant to energy policy and the energy transition, five critical social equity impacts of environmental improvement, health, employment, participation, and energy cost are investigated from the viewpoint of an 'equitable' energy transition. We investigate the correlation between quantitative social equity impacts and the shift toward new renewable energy-based electricity (i. e., wind, photovoltaic, geothermal, tidal, biomass etc.) from 1990 to 2015, for 99 nations with differing development levels, energy resources and policies. We find that increased levels of new renewable energy deployment generally accompany social equity improvement, however geography, national income level and complementary energy policies are also important. Our results highlight specific issues for developing nations, whereby electricity needs are often met by fossil fuels prior to the large-scale penetration of renewables. These nations enjoy short-term social equity benefits, at the risk of long-term negative social equity outcomes. This study's holistic evaluation of energy transitions and social equity outcomes could be used as an input to proactive policy development contributing to the realization of a more equitable energy transition.

By focusing on a distributed energy system that has been widely diffused for efficient utilization of renewable energy generation in recent years, this paper investigates the relationship between productivity growth and information and communications technology capital in the energy sector. Information and communications technology is a key factor in operating distributed energy systems in a way that balances energy supply and demand in order to minimize energy loss and to enhance capacity utilization. The objective of this study is to clarify the determining factors that affect productivity growth, focusing on three different information and communications technologies: information technology capital, communication technology capital and software capital. Our estimation sample covers energy sectors in 14 countries from 2000 to 2014. The results show that information technology and software capital contribute to increasing material productivity and capital productivity in the energy sector, respectively. Meanwhile, communication technology capital negatively affects these two productivity indicators.

This study investigates the determinant role of the cross-border movement of skilled labor in the expansion of service trade between the US, and both developed and developing countries. For this purpose, we employ the key concepts of network theory as an analytical framework and conduct panel data analysis and graphical modeling analysis for 31 countries from 1999 to 2008. In this decade, offshore outsourcing in the service trade took off worldwide. We use data for each country's service exports to the US, number of H-1B visas issued, GNI per-capita, network readiness index, and an English dummy for the official language. We illustrate the trajectory and interactions between these factors. These analyses yield three observations. First, service trade with the US is more intensive among higher income countries. Second, the number of H-1B visas issued has a positive effect on service exports to the US. Third, individuals in lower income countries tend to desire H-1B visas and create intensive skilled labor networks with the US, the path through which developing countries such as India expanded their service exports to the US.