• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

The blockchain is still new and unfamiliar. But blockchain appears to shake an entire technology innovation system. Blockchain is rapidly drawing attention in that it will be able to fundamentally revolutionize industry ecosystem. While cryptocurrency transactions and market capitalization have been popular in mass media, several platform operators in non-cryptocurrency areas such as jewelry, social networks, and entertainment, are also moving to introduce blockchain technology in full swing. In this brief note, we intend to present integrated theoretical strands to summarize various prospects for blockchain technology. Further, we want to provide a reflection as to whether this new technology gives opportunities, challenges, or risks to future society. Particularly, we point out one of its alternative and promising adoption that gives way to new forms of decentralized and autonomous organizations (DAOs).

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제18권2호
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• pp.68-89
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• 2019

When comparing media freedom in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand, so-called "fake news" appears as threats to a deliberative (online) public sphere in these three diverse contexts. However, "racist propaganda", "information operations" and "negative campaigning" might be more accurate terms that explain these forms of systematic manipulative political communication. The three cases show forms of disinformation in under-researched contexts and thereby expand the often Western focused discourses on hate speech and fake news. Additionally, the analysis shows that harmful disinformation disseminated online originates from differing contextual trajectories and is not an "online phenomenon". Drawing on an analysis of connotative context factors, this explorative comparative study enables an understanding of different forms of harmful disinformation in Malaysia, Myanmar, and Thailand. The connotative context factors were inductively inferred from 32 expert interviews providing explanations for the formation of political communication (control) mechanisms.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.1-6
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• 2004

On 27 June 2004, some one million voters went to the polls in Mongolia to elect 76 members of the Great State Hural, Mongolia's parliament. It was the fourth election held in Mongolia under the 1992 constitution. In the previous election, the former communist MPRP won a landslide, ousting the government of former democracy activists. Under the MPRP, Mongolia's economy performed extraordinary well. Surprisingly, the ruling Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party (MPRP) lost its two-thirds majority and half its parliamentarians in the 2004 election. But the Motherland Democracy Coalition (MDC), a coalition of Mongolia's most influential opposition parties, fell short of achieving a majority of its own. After the election, a grand coalition government was formed, paving the way for profound legal, social, and economic reforms.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.27-40
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• 2016

This study uses a network approach to investigate the structural characteristics of sub-organizations within public research institutes in order to obtain their implications for organizational structures. We construct a network based on research similarities between sub-organizations because sub-organizations generally build their own research portfolios. We examine how sub-units are organized based on their structural features. The structural features are compared between three public research institutes in different countries: the Korean the Government-funded Research Institutes (GRIs), the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Germany, and the National Laboratories (NLs) in the United States. The structural comparison helps to identify organizational characteristics and to differentiate between them. We found little common ground in the research areas between the GRIs because individual sub-organizations have distinct research portfolios. Therefore, the organizational hierarchy of research in the GRIs is less matured than it is in other public research institutes. This study suggests that the GRIs need to establish integrated strategies in order to strengthen the common knowledge base.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.64-77
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• 2016

This case study takes a look at the hyperlink networks extracted from the websites of 367 international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with datasets from 2010, 2012 and 2014. The first level of evaluation focuses on connections between the NGOs, identifying important nodes, groups and their relations. The second level takes into account the broad range of networked websites from the World Wide Web delivering insights into general networking patterns. The third level explores the underlying spatial configurations of the network which offers a great variety of geographic insights on information flows between and within continents, countries and cities. The most interesting findings of this study are a low level of interconnectedness between the NGOs and at the same time a strong spatial concentration of all embedded network actors.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.98-110
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• 2016

Building resilient community is often a complicated process to be gained by interorganizational collaboration. Since patterns of interorganizational relations among governments and sectors are constantly changing due to internal and external factors in the field of emergency management, understanding the dynamic nature of interorganizational collaboration is a critical step for improving a community’s ability to bounce back from a catastrophic event. From two theoretical perspectives, this research aims to examine the essential role of working across levels of governments and sectors in building resilient community by focusing on sources of community resiliency and a strong commitment. The empirical evidence highlights the importance of studying resilience as a way to understand the motivation and incentive for organizations to work jointly during emergency response. The study of organizational resilience also draws attention for the importance of various forms of interorganizational collaboration such as formal and informal relations. It also highlights how local organizations can utilize their relations to seek resources without necessarily jeopardizing their ability to perform their core organizational functions.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.78-97
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• 2016

Living labs are an increasingly popular methodology to enhance innovation. Living labs aim to span boundaries between different organizations, among others Triple helix actors, by acting as a network organization typically in a real-life environment to foster co-creation by user-groups. This paper presents critical factors of Living labs in boundary-spanning between Triple Helix actors. Derived from a mixed-method approach and applications in the healthcare sector, the three main critical factors turn out to be 1) an adequate user-group selection and involvement, specifically a rich interaction and absorption of its results, 2) a balanced involvement of all relevant actors, and 3) a sufficient (early) attention for values, both values of user-groups and values of the management. People-oriented Living labs tend to differ from institution-oriented Living labs regarding these critical factors. Further, universities tend to take on diverse roles and strength of involvement, while the business sector tends to be actively involved only if this has been set as an explicit aim at start. The paper closes with a summary and future research paths.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제15권1호
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• pp.17-26
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• 2016

The present research applies the Theory of Harmony through Holistic Engagement to the foreign policy of Japan. As the third largest economy in the world and one of the most highly developed countries in the world, Japan is a major international power. Most analysts interpret Japan’s foreign policy through the lenses of realist, exceptionalist, or liberal institutionalist approaches. All the previously mentioned approaches tend to be based on etic studies conducted from the point of view of outsiders. The present interpretation of Japanese foreign policy applies an emic model based on primary sources from the Greater East Asian region and concludes that the Model of Harmony through Holistic Engagement shows considerable explanatory traction in interpreting the direction and development of Japanese foreign policy, in particular in the last two to three decades.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.69-85
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• 2014

This paper explores the convergence process by focusing on the massively multiplayer online game(MMOG) industry and the online broadcasting industry in South Korea. In doing so, the paper seeks to establish the concept of Hidden catalysts for the integration process between the two industries and explore the roles of the Hidden catalysts in triggering the industry's transition. Further, the modified multi-level socio-technical model we applied in our research allows us both to understand each industry's development towards convergence in various dimensions and also to focus on the activities of the Hidden catalysts. In assessing the role of Hidden catalysts in industry convergence, we found that Hidden catalysts depend on two essential features: first, appropriate technology leading to the new industry dominance; and second, managerial capabilities to deal with conflicts among other new interest groups, to harmonise with government initiatives for industry development and to create new value in the integrated market to please the demand of mixed customers.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• 제13권2호
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• pp.57-68
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• 2014

How do party organizations respond to newly evolving social groups? Research on Indian party organizations reveals that in multiethnic societies with uneven modernization between social groups, internally competitive parties respond better to newly evolving groups. Moreover, it is claimed: the same dynamic works vis-$\grave{a}$-vis homogenous societies with cleavages based on economic differences; and, the pattern holds regardless of differences in electoral institutions. This study examines these claims by testing whether factional competition correlated with recruitment into Japan's Liberal Democratic Party in 1972 and 1983. Japan had a single-nontransferable-vote system with multi-member districts, while the research on India assumes a first-past-the-post system with single-member districts. This study conducts a difference of means test on the population of new and old politicians in the LDP in 1972 and 1983 with a pooled variance adjustment to account for differences in populations' size. The findings show that intra-party competition and recruitment are not correlated in Japan, thus tentatively rejecting both claims.