** We are currently experiencing some problems with our online RSVP system.  If you have any difficulty registering for this event, please send an email directly to the organizer, Denise Masumoto, via email masumoto@stanford.edu.  Thank you for your cooperation.  **

In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Mitsunori Fukuda, "Learning From Regulations About Electricity Supply in California"

In March 2011, a massive earthquake and tsunami struck Japan causing a severe accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.  As a result of this accident and an electricity crisis in Japan, it has become increasingly more important to create a more stable and robust electricity supply system.  On the other hand, there is a unique electricity supply situation in California.  Although the situation is much different from the one in Japan, the California government has also tried to improve its situation by reforming regulations for electricity supply companies.  In his research, Fukuda reviews the Japanese electricity supply situation and related regulations.  Additionally, he identifies significant learning points for Japanese improvement from the California situation. 

Chengbao He, "The Characteristics of Research and Development Management of Large Oil Companies"

Large oil companies play a dominant role in the oil industry, a vast majority of which is integrated with upstream and downstream business.  These large oil companies consist of international oil companies (IOCs) and national oil companies (NOCs).  Along with the accelerated economic globalization process, competition and cooperation between NOCs and IOCs will be more extensive and diverse.  The competition between these enterprises is not only a competition for resources, but more importantly, it is about the technical strength of competition and the ability to develop and deploy new technology.  Strengthening the management of research and development (R&D) and improving the efficiency of R&D is the constant goal of each oil company. 

In his research, He introduces the typical generation of R&D management mode at present, focuses on the analysis and comparison of R&D management and operation practice of the five well-known large oil companies, namely ExxonMobil, BP, Shell, Chevron and CNPC.  They have formed their unique management mode, technological advantage and competitive advantage in technology innovation. 

Tsutomu Morigaki, "How Do Japanese Electric Companies Expand Business both in Japan and Globally?"

Traditional Japanese electric companies have been struggling with expanding their own businesses as well as their declining international competitiveness in the field.  Why is it difficult for Japanese companies to recover and succeed in international markets?  Morigaki analyzes the current situation from various points of view such as cultural features, technological trends and the movement of leading companies in the United States.  In this presentation, Morigaki provides suggestions on how to make strategies and which fields Japanese electric companies should focus on in the near future. 

Toshihiko Takeda, "Enhancing Multiculturalism Through Implementing Immersion Programs in Japan – Learning from Schools in the San Francisco Bay Area"

The United States has accepted generations of immigrants for more than 240 years from all around the globe.  While on the opposite shore of the Pacific Ocean, Japan maintains a virtually homogeneous society.  However, some local governments in Japan are facing an influx of foreign migrants who need to communicate with new neighbors in many places including classrooms.  The United States has a long history of language education for immigrants and its children.  Takeda explores various language immersion programs and analyzes good practices in the San Francisco Bay Area and implementation options for Japan. 

** We are currently experiencing some problems with our online RSVP system.  If you have any difficulty registering for this event, please send an email directly to the organizer, Denise Masumoto, via email masumoto@stanford.edu.  Thank you for your cooperation.  **

In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Kazuaki Osumi, "A Comparative Study of VCs in the United States and Japan"

There is no doubt that start-ups are one of the most important players for innovation.  And venture capital firms (VCs) play a vital role in improving their business.  In his research, Osumi tries to find out what the role is for the Japanese government in this area by comparing the differences between VCs in the United States and Japan.

Kenta Sakurai, "Establishing the Optimal System of Patent Examination"

The patent war between Apple and Samsung Electronics, which was big news in the summer of 2012, has been spreading throughout the world, including Europe and Asia.  However, this is not the only problem these two companies have.  In order to prepare for the other forth-coming patent wars, technology companies are trying to win an “armament race”, acquiring as many patents (“weapons”) as possible.  While heating the races, the total number of patent applications filed at the national patent offices has been rapidly increasing over the last decade.  As a result, the most serious problem for each of these offices has become examining this flood of applications, creating a trade-off between swiftness and accuracy of examination.

In his presentation, Sakurai argues what is the optimal patent examination process, understanding the importance of both timely patent issuance and deterrence of superfluous provision of “weapons”.

Mao Xie, "Downstream Gas Business Management"

In recent years, the role of natural gas in facilitating low carbon economic growth, energy consumption mix optimization and environmental protection has become more prominent.  After the deregulation of the wellhead prices, interstate pipeline regulation and the emergence of the marketers, the United States’ natural gas industry has entered its mature stage and become one of the most developed gas markets in the world.

To develop a strong natural gas business constitutes a key part of constructing a green, internationalized and sustainable PetroChina.  Through market environment comparison and case studies involving the downstream area, Xie attempts to understand the best and most appropriate experiences that a state-owned company like PetroChina can learn and apply to its own practices.

** We are currently experiencing some problems with our online RSVP system.  If you have any difficulty registering for this event, please send an email directly to the organizer, Denise Masumoto, via email masumoto@stanford.edu.  Thank you for your cooperation.  **

In this session of the Shorenstein APARC Corporate Affiliate Visiting Fellows Research Presentations, the following will be presented:

Yasuaki Hanai, "Are Japanese Electric Companies Becoming Obsolete? –  Rethinking Strong Points for Japanese Electric Companies

In recent years, it has become very common to take pictures using a smart phone or tablet, such as an iPad, and to share this information via social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.  Japanese electric companies and products have been noticeably absent from this area, except for the single-lens reflex camera.  How has this happened?  Why have Japanese electric companies suffered a decline?  In his research, Hanai tries to answer these questions by analyzing the financial reports of various Japanese companies after the bubble economy collapse.  Hanai also considers strong points for Japanese electric companies and what the next actions should be to reverse the decline.

Saiko Nakagawa,  "Systemic Risks in the Japanese Banking Sector"

“Systemic risk” has become a buzzword after the global financial crisis in 2007-08.  Due to its elusive nature, there have been active discussions among scholars, international organizations and national regulators on how to measure and address the risk in order to prevent the next crisis.  In her presentation, Nakagawa will introduce these recent discussions and argue the implications to Japan’s financial sector.

Masashi Suzuki, "Dismal Software Industry in Japan – Will It Be Disrupted or Will It Discover Its Own Way like U.S. Players?"

In his research, Suzuki provides an historical analysis of the software market in Japan and the United States as well as a comprehensive analysis of the status quo of these two countries. Are there ways to improve the unfavorable situation in Japan?  Suzuki attempts to provide an answer to this question in his research presentation. 

Bin Wang, "Innovation and New Venture Strategies in China"

In recent years, entrepreneurship has played an increasing role in promoting economic growth in China.  The Chinese government began to pay more attention to encourage entrepreneurship in order to reform the economic structure.  Wang’s research examines the characteristics of the emerging industry and reveals a positive relationship between innovation capabilities and growth of new venture.  He developed a framework to classify new venture strategies based on market characteristics and innovation capabilities, identified ten strategic types, and reviewed their impact on performance in new ventures in China.  Wang’s research attempts to provide important guidelines for venture capital to identify potential investment opportunities.  These guidelines will also help entrepreneurs to identify an appropriate strategy to pursue business opportunities in given situations. 

A workshop on designing and delivering effective oral presentations.

A workshop on designing and delivering effective oral presentations.

How do we know that a person is what she claims to be? Or how do we make others believe that we are the person that we claim to be? Sociologists have explored these questions by focusing on face-to-face interaction in various everyday settings. This talk concerns the micropolitics of identification in a more formalized and institutionalized setting, specifically in immigration proceedings. Drawing on the literature on bureaucracy, presentation of self, migrant sending communities, and deviance, the speaker examines how immigration bureaucrats seek to establish migrants’ identities in contemporary immigration proceedings; how migrants challenge these dominant identification practices, notably through their involvement in various “illegal” schemes; and what consequences these micropolitical struggles have for both receiving and sending states. The talk is based on a study of the contestations over family-based immigration in South Korea, which have focused on efforts to establish the kinship and marital status of co-ethnic migrants from China (Korean Chinese migrants). The speaker will show how bureaucrats and migrants mobilize various types of “identity tags,” how migrants combine strategic and moral reasoning as they engage in these micropolitical struggles, and how these struggles influence not only immigration policies in the receiving state but also migration brokerage networks and gender and family relations in the sending states. The talk is based on Kim’s award-winning article in Law and Social Inquiry.

Jaeeun Kim is a postdoctoral fellow at the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University (2012-2013). Before joining Stanford, she received her PhD degree in sociology from UCLA (2011) and was a postdoctoral research associate at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University (2011-2012). Her dissertation entitled Colonial Migration and Transborder Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea examines diaspora politics in twentieth-century Korea, focusing on colonial-era ethnic Korean migrants and their descendants in Japan and northeast China. Her dissertation has recently been awarded the Theda Skocpol Best Dissertation Award from the Comparative-Historical Sociology Section of the ASA. Kim’s work has appeared in Theory and Society, Law and Social Inquiry, and European Journal of Sociology. Her article in Law and Social Inquiry, entitled “Establishing Identity: Documents, Performance, and Biometric Information in Immigration Proceedings,” has won the graduate and law students best paper award in 2011. After completing her fellowship term at Stanford, Kim will be Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University beginning in the fall 2013. 

Abstract:

The discovery of oil or gas in a poor country is potentially beneficial and, simultaneously, potentially calamitous. While countries could put oil revenues toward building much-needed schools and roads, fixing and staffing health systems, and policing the streets, many resource-rich states fare little better—and often much worse—than their re resource-poor counterparts. Too often public money is misallocated and funds meant to be saved are raided, and citizens pay the price. While there is much discussion about how to respond to windfalls, solutions to counteract potential corrosive effects are highly elusive. Todd Moss leads CGD's Oil-to-Cash initiative, which is exploring one policy option: paying revenues directly to citizens. Under this proposal, a government would transfer some or all of the revenue from natural resource extraction to citizens in universal, transparent, and regular payments. The state would treat these payments as normal income and tax it accordingly—thus forcing the state to collect taxes, and addinng additional pressure for public accountability and more responsible resource management. Todd will talk about the idea, the pitfalls, and some of the emerging models experimenting with aspects of the Oil-to-Cash model.

Todd Moss is vice president for programs and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, a Washington-DC based thinktank. Moss previously served in the US State Department, worked at the World Bank, and was a lecturer at the London School of Economics.  He is the author of African Development: Making sense of the issues and actors (2011).

About the topic: The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees approached CISAC last year to collaborate on a project to improve conditions among global refugee communities.  This has led to a multidisciplinary partnership involving CISAC, students from across the Stanford campus and at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. Professors, NGOs, physicians, architects and other professionals have all volunteered time and expertise.  The project led to a Law School class, "Rethinking Refugee Communities," co-taught by CISAC's Tino Cuéllar and IDEO's Leslie Witt.  Four students representing teams from the class recently traveled to refugee camps in western Ethiopia on the border with Sudan.  They conducted field research for their projects focused on camp communications; early camp setup and registration; food security and economic sustainability; and host community relations.

Speakers include:

Parth Bhakta, Co-term senior and first-year graduate student, Computer Science

Beth Duff-Brown,Communications and Editorial Manager, CISAC

Jessica Miranda Garcia, Second-year graduate student, International Policy Studies

Benjamin Rudolph, Senior, Computer Science

Devorah West, Second-year graduate student, International Policy Studies

Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar (Host), Co-Director, CISAC; Co-Instructor, “Rethinking Refugee Communities” 

Abstract:

The U.S. and the E.U. are often seen as fundamentally different democracy promoters. It has been argued that the U.S. has a more political approach, which is confrontational vis-à-vis host governments and promotes democracy bottom-up via civil society. The E.U., on the other hand, is perceived as more developmental, focusing on non-confrontational projects that are mostly top-down or focused on civil society organizations not critical of the government. The U.S.’s political approach has been criticized for being too donor-led, unilateral, and hardly respecting country ownership. But should American democracy assistance become more European?

Based on research on E.U. and U.S. democracy assistance programs in Ethiopia, CDDRL Postdoctoral Fellow Karen Del Biondo explains the causes and consequences of a political and developmental approach to democracy assistance. She argues that the E.U. has indeed taken a more developmental approach, which can be explained by the European Commission’s commitment to the Paris Declaration principles on aid effectiveness, including ownership, alignment and, harmonization. This was possible because of the relatively autonomous position of the Commission vis-à-vis the Member States and the European Parliament. In contrast, USAID does not enjoy this bureaucratic autonomy, and has therefore paid lip service to aid effectiveness. Del Biondo discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a political and developmental approach in a semi-authoritarian regime such as Ethiopia. She finds that, although the impact of E.U. democracy assistance in Ethiopia can be questioned, the E.U.’s developmental approach has made the government of Ethiopia more open to E.U. democracy assistance, while the U.S.’s political approach led to a backlash.

Speaker Bio:

Karen Del Biondo is a 2012-2013 postdoctoral fellow at the CDDRL. Her research is funded with a Fulbright-Schuman award and a postdoctoral grant from the Belgian-American Educational Foundation (BAEF). She holds an MA in Political Science (International Relations) from Ghent University and an MA in European Studies from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. In 2007-2008 she obtained a Bernheim fellowship for an internship in European affairs at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Permanent Representation to the EU. 

Karen Del Biondo obtained her PhD at the Centre for EU Studies, Ghent University in September 2012 with a dissertation entitled ‘Norms, self-interest and effectiveness: Explaining double standards in EU reactions to violations of democratic principles in sub-Saharan Africa’. Her PhD research was funded by the Flemish Fund for Scientific Research (FWO). Apart from her PhD research, she has been involved in the research project ‘The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion’ (Ghent University/University of Mannheim/Centre of European Policy Studies) and has published on the securitisation of EU development policies. In January 2011 she conducted field research in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her postdoctoral research will focus on the comparison between EU and US democracy assistance in sub-Saharan Africa.