Managing Innovation through Ma Thinking

What is it about?

How do leading companies, organizations and individuals unceasingly produce highquality innovations? The actions and thinking of leading practitioners (innovators) originate in Ma thinking, the core theoretical concept presented in this paper. This paper discusses how Ma thinking triggers the combination of creativity and efficiency in people and organizations needed for the achievement of innovation. In particular, this paper discusses new perspectives on organizational actions executed based on Ma thinking to strategically bring about new innovation, which involve dynamic thinking and practices at the micro level of practitioners not only in formal organizations but also in informal organizations. The paper presents detailed case studies and theoretical concepts of innovation activities at the micro level in business workplaces from the perspective of strategic activities and organizational actions.

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Why is it important?

In this paper, the author describes Ma as starting points for the capability to allow the coexistence of dissimilars, an important factor in achieving innovation, and describes how the formation of Ma is a critical factor in integrating dissimilar knowledge, and creating knowledge in organizations and companies, as observed in in-depth case studies in business and management. Thus, as a study on innovation related to Ma in business and management, this paper provides a template for new Ma-based academic research domains across a range of different specializations with the promise of further development. This paper presents a theoretical concept of the five types of Ma thinking, they being the Ma of context, the Ma of space–time, the mental Ma, the Ma of dissimilars and the Ma of the spirit. Then, the paper provides a theoretical framework for the five architect capabilities that are born of Ma thinking, they being context architect capability, Ba architect capability, human network architect capability, boundary linking capability and willpower architect capability. Then, the paper identifies how the five architect capabilities of practitioners based on the five types of Ma thinking achieve innovation by dynamically synthesizing paradoxical thoughts and actions. The paper is structured in the following way. It begins by explaining the research methodology. Next, as case studies in the business and management fields, and regarding thinking and activities of practitioners and the nature of organizations, it analyses the functions and roles of Ma in international innovative companies (Apple in the USA) and in product development processes [the discovery of the blue light-emitting diode (LED), which resulted in a Nobel Prize for Physics]. Finally, the paper presents observations on organizational culture, mental models, boundaries between formal and informal organizations, and implications derived from knowledge gained from the Ma theoretical framework and case studies, and then provides a conclusion and discusses remaining research issues.

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