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Kabushiki kaisha (jp) = incorporated company (kaisha = company)
Kaizen
Continuous improvement (part of organizational learning in
Japanese companies) [Hayter, p.373]
Kanban
"Just-in-time" system
(Japanese)
Karoshi
a Japanese expression for "a condition in which psychologically unsound
work practices are allowed to continue in such a way that disrupts the
worker's normal work and life rythm leading to a buildup of fatigue...
and a chronic condition of overwork... finally resulting in a fatal
breakdown." (Source: Rifkin, End of Work, p.186)
Keiretsu
Japanese enterprise groups:
- former zaibatsu
- Mitsui
- Mitsubishi
- Sumitomo
- Others:
- Fuyo (Fuji Bank)
- Sanwa
- Dai-Ichi
Keizai chiri (jp) = Economic Geography (keizai=economy)
Kinyu keiretsu (jp) = group of firms organized around a large commercial
bank
Knowledge Conversion
"Our dynamic model of knowledge creation is anchored to a critical
assumption that human knowledge is created and expanded through social
interaction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge."
(Nonaka & Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company, p.61)
Nikolai Kondratieff
Russian economist promoting "long-wave
theory" (Healey & Ilbery, p.15)
KONDRATIEV WAVES or CYCLES: (Kondratiev, 1926) refers to
"long waves" lasting
approx. 50 years, each being "associated
with particularly significant technological changes around which other
innovations... cluster and ultimately spread through the economy"
(Dicken, Global Shift, p.20)
Krugman, Paul
Geography &
Trade
and Krugman's more recent book on Development, Geography, and Economic
Theory
(1995)
Kyoho Kai
Association of Co-Development with Toyota Motor, founded in 1939,
consisting of about 25 'first-tier' parts suppliers largely based in
Tokyo. After WWII the association was expanded and regionally divided.
[see Hayter, p.355 for more detail]
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Return to Econ & Bus Geog || Glossaries
1999 [econgeog@u.washington.edu]
