ogy. This technology was used as a starting point in their applied research labs to develop new products or improve existing ones. This approach was extremely successful, which is evident when we consider the difference in terms of the dollars paid by Japanese companies in royalties and licensing fees to American companies and the value of the products, developed with this technology, imported into America by Japanese firms. Another factor that played an important role was the Japanese philosophy of industrial research, keisan constant incremental improvement. They did not tend to focus on only adding dramatic improvements to their products. Instead, they talked with actual customers and added features that they felt were the most important to them. Their applied research labs were especially suited for this task, something that was realized in the United States in PARC when it conducted the survey to operate its copiers and took this approach to solve the problems found. In conclusion, the advantage the Japanese firms had in using the applied research model before most of the US electronic firms gave them the initial big lift. They were able channel and use their limited research resources more effectively to develop better quality and cheaper products by focusing their research on improving their manufacturing processes. This helped them gain market share. After they had a strong market position, they could effectively use that to diversify and launch different product lines. These products ideas were also for the most part built using borrowed or licensed foreign technology, which they built upon. In addition, the presence of their home base augmenting research labs abroad helped them identify key product technologies they could use and their emphasis on long range planning has seemingly paid off. ...
