軽部大教授と宮澤優輝さん（一橋大学大学院経営管理研究科博士後期課程・IMPP所属）が、米国のAcademy of Managementが主催する国際学術会議「2026 Academy of Management Annual Meeting」の2つの部門（Organization and Natural Environment Division、およびTechnology and Innovation Management Division）において、同時に「Best Paper（優秀論文賞）」に選ばれました。
【Organization and Natural Environment Division】
発表予定日：
2026年08月03日 11:30AM – 1:00PM ET (GMT-4/UTC-4) at Sheraton in Salon 3(アメリカ合衆国フィラデルフィア)
受賞者：
宮脇良二（京都大学経営管理大学院 博士後期課程）
軽部大（一橋大学イノベーション研究センター センター長・教授）
山田仁一郎（京都大学 経営管理研究部・教育部 教授）
宮澤優輝（一橋大学大学院経営管理研究科博士後期課程・IMPP所属）
研究成果：
The Power of Negative Materiality: How Market Absence Sustains Regenerative Organizing.
研究要約：
A substantial body of circular economy research posits market formation as a prerequisite for sustaining circular initiatives. In the absence of markets to absorb recovered by-products or valorize environmental benefits, such initiatives are often expected to stall at the pilot stage. However, this assumption cannot fully explain cases in which organizing persists despite prolonged market absence. This study examines the emergence and persistence of a circular ecosystem in Saga City, Japan, originating from a municipal waste incineration plant—a typical NIMBY facility—without the development of a mature CO2 utilization market. Drawing on a qualitative process case study, we analyze ongoing experimentation, dialogue, and engagement among diverse actors around the future use and meaning of CO2 and the incineration plant. Our analysis identifies two structural conditions that sustained these dynamics: market absence and negative materiality. Under these conditions, orchestration emerged not as design or optimization but as a practice that absorbed frictions and prevented relationships and experimentation from halting. We conceptualize this process as regenerative organizing: a spiral dynamic in which localized experiments, justificatory work, and interactions accumulate through trickle-up processes, regenerating not only material resources such as CO2 but also the knowledge, relationships, emotions, and place meanings that sustain continued organizing. Keywords: Regenerative Organizing; Market Absence; Negative Materiality; Circular Ecosystems
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【Technology and Innovation Management Division】
発表予定日：
2026年08月03日 3:00PM – 4:30PM ET (GMT-4/UTC-4) at Marriott in Salon J (アメリカ合衆国フィラデルフィア)
受賞者：
宮澤優輝（一橋大学大学院 経営管理研究科 博士後期課程・IMPP所属）
軽部大（一橋大学イノベーション研究センター センター長・教授）
Avimanyu Datta（イリノイ州立大学, College of Business, Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship）
研究成果：
Becoming Lead Users: Emergence of a Collective Technological Frame through Manifestations
研究要約：
A substantial body of research on lead users has extensively examined their characteristics, with a predominant focus on identifying characteristics of lead users.However, prior research implicitly assumes that a shared understanding of which needs and knowledge are considered “advanced” pre-exists among market participants. We challenge this assumption by focusing on how specific users contribute to innovation in a fluid market context where such shared understanding—or a collective technological frame—is absent. We qualitatively analyze a historical case of market emergence of vocal synthesis technology, in which producer-user interaction led to the emergence of a collective technological frame. The results demonstrate that manifestation—an act of linguistically, visually, or materially embodying a future potentiality foreseen within a specific technological frame—enables producers and users with initially divergent technological frames to communicate, mutually adjust their perspectives, and eventually establish a collective technological frame. This also leads to the emergence of a market consensus regarding who the lead users are and their characteristics. Our study challenges the lead user theory’s assumption that characteristics inherent in lead users are predetermined and identifiable ex ante. Instead, we demonstrate how users interacting with producers become lead users ex post through the practice of manifestation.