Solution based business as virtually vertical integration

Economic growth is stalling globally. New business schemes and/or new industrial architectures must be created to resolve this situation; innovation is necessary. Conventional innovation has been created mainly by technologies. Future innovation or new industries, however, will be born through non-technology fields. The authors propose a cultural study approach to create new industrial architectures. Recently almost all Otaku-based anime characters and games are actually combinations of earlier characters and plots, which constitute a database. This kind of sub-culture, postmodern culture, is a world of reference and remixes. Neither grand narratives nor objectives are necessary. What comes from the database, grand non-narrative, is designated as a “simulacre” or secondary creation from originals. The authors applied this “simulacre” model to industrial architecture. More than 30 years ago, industry sought and achieved vertical integration. Large computer companies served all sectors of computer production and merchant such as IC chips, OS, and applications. Modern architecture has become horizontal integrated, where IC chip OEMs provide only chips, and OS suppliers serve the OS business. The postmodern culture suggests that the new industrial architecture is based on a “simulacre” of these conventional sectors. This model is verified to explain recent innovations such as i-Phones and cloud computing businesses.