Time Lags Related to Past and Current IT Innovations in Japan

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine two types of time lag related to IT innovations in Japan. The first is the time lag between newspaper articles and academic papers in the past. The second is the ongoing time lag with regard to the big data trend between the United States and Japan. This article explores a new analytical process based on two-dimensional maps proposed by Krinder et al. (2005) for visualizing and measuring time lags. After overviewing the big data trend in Japan, the author analyzed 2,910 newspaper articles and 550 academic papers published in Japan related to past innovations, as well as 734 newspaper articles from the United States and 173 from Japan related to the big data innovation. The results indicate that academic research for past trends lags business trends by 1-4 years. However, time lags in the big data trend could not be captured because of the difficulty predicting the point of inflection of S-shaped curves in an early stage of innovation. Accordingly, the author simulated future S-shaped curves to show the gap between the United States and Japan.