Learning and Technological Change

299 Pages·1993·32.012 MB·English

by  Ross Thomson (eds.)

LEARNING AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE
Also by Ross Thomson
THE PATH TO MECHANIZED SHOE PRODUCTION IN THE
UNITED STATES
Learning and
Technological Change
Edited by
Ross Thomson
Associate Professor of Economics
University ofVermont, Burlington
!50th YEAR
M
St. Martin's Press
© Ross Thomson 1993
Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1993 978-0-333-55683-2
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London WIP 9HE.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
First published in Great Britain 1993 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS
and London
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-349-22857-7 ISBN 978-1-349-22855-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-22855-3
First published in the United States of America 1993 by
Scholarly and Reference Division,
ST. MARTIN'S PRESS, INC.,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010
ISBN 978-0-312-09591-8
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Learning and technological change I edited by Ross Thomson.
p. em.
Includes index.
ISBN 978-0-312-09591-8
I. Technological innovations-Economic aspects. 2. Technological
innovations-Economic aspects-History. 3. Economic history.
I. Thomson, Ross.
HC79.T4L423 1993
338'.06~c20 92-46516
CIP
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
Notes on the Contributors xi
1 Introduction
Ross Thomson 1
Part I Approaches and Institutions
2 Technical Change as Cultural Evolution
Richard R. Nelson 9
3 Learning and Technological Change: The Perspective from
Business History
Alfred D. Chandler Jr 24
4 Nineteenth-Century American Patent Management as an
Invisible College of Technology
Carolyn C. Cooper 40
Part II Dill'usion, Learning and Ongoing Technological Change
5 Thinking about Technological Change: Linear and
Evolutionary Models
John K. Smith 65
6 Economic Forms of Technological Change
Ross Thomson 80
7 A Model of the Productivity Gap: Convergence or
Divergence?
Donald J. Harris 100
Part III Competition and Learning
8 Innovative Learning and Institutions in the Process of
Development: on the Microfoundation of Growth Regimes
Francesca Chiaramonte, Giovanni Dosi and Luigi Orsenigo 117
v
vi Contents
9 The Dynamics of Innovation and Diffusion with Competing
Techniques
Willi Semmler 150
10 Learning and the Dynamics of International Competitive
Advantage
William Lazonick 172
Part IV Technological Development and Economic Transformation
11 History and its Lessons
William N. Parker 201
12 Transformational Growth and Learning: Developing Craft
Technology into Scientific Mass Production
Edward J. Nell 217
13 Borrowing Technology or Innovating: An Exploration of
Two Paths to Industrial Development
Alice H. Amsden and Takashi Hikino 243
14 Epilogue: Institutions, Learning and Technological Change
Ross Thomson 267
Index 281
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
2.1 The effectiveness of various means for capturing returns
to innovation 14
2.2 Imitation cost as a percentage of innovation cost for new
products 15
2.3 Effectiveness of different means of learning about a
competitor's product innovation 16
2.4 Number of industries citing university research in a field
as relevant to industrial technology 18
6.1 Shoe manufacturing patenting by type of use,
1848-1901 85
6.2 Crossover patenting by type of shoemaking patent use,
1848-1901 89
6.3 Crossover patenting by shoemaking and crossover use,
1848-1901 92
7.1 Comparative levels of productivity (GOP per hour
worked), 1870-1984 101
13.1 Distribution of world GOP, 1900-87 244
13.2 Balance of trade in mid-tech manufactured products of
the USA and Japan, 1970-85 260
Figures
4.1 Patent examiners at work, 1869 45
4.2 Harnessing visual communication for marketing patents 49
4.3 Irregular turning lathes compared 52
4.4 Two methods of bending wood 55
7.1 Convergence pattern of xAix8 109
8.1 Innovative opportunities 122
8.2 Innovation in sector 1 130
8.3 Imitation in sector 1 131
8.4 Distance between notional and realized opportunities 139
8.5 Income time series 140
8.6 Labour productivity time series 141
8.7 Income time series: 'classical employment' simulation 144
8.8 Labour productivity time series: 'classical employment'
simulation 144
8.9 Income time series: 'competitive product-market'
simulation 145
8.10 Labour productivity time series: 'Competitive product-
market' simulation 145
9.1 Logistic curve 153
vii
viii List of Tables and Figures
9.2 Innovation and diffusion with non-optimizing behaviour 159
9.3 Vector field for the local dynamics about
(E1) and (E2) 163
9.4 Trajectories of market shares of old and new technologies 165
10.1 Fixed cost strategies and competitive advantage 176
10.2 Transforming internal diseconomies into internal
economies 180
10.3 Transforming external diseconomies into internal
economies 181
10.4 External economies as a competitive strategy 184
11.1 Science, technology and economy, 1700-2000: an
overview 204
11.1a Scientific development: methods, organization and foci 205
11.1b Technological development, 1700-2000 206
11.1c Economic development in Western capitalism,
1700-2000 207
13.1 The organization of IG Farben, 1930 254
13.2 The organization of Nissan zaibatsu, 1937 255
Acknowledgements
This book brings together the research of fifteen scholars who interpret
technological change as an institutionally structured learning process. Like
the change it examines, this book was the outcome of a learning process. It
began as a working conference on 'The Process of Technological Change'
held at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in
November 1989. In this lively and cooperative setting, the authors in
teracted with each other, with other presenters (including Paul David,
Gerard Dumenil, Thomas Hughes, Peter Lazes, Dominique Levy, William
Mass, Scott Moss, Pascal Petit, Nina Shapiro and Edward Wolff) and with
participating faculty and students. Like industrial research, the conference
needed financial support, for which we thank the New School. It also
needed organizational support, which Karin Ray and a dozen volunteering
students provided with care and enthusiasm.
Just as a new technique requires development after the inventor shouts
'Eureka', so too did the essays of this book. Authors modified their papers,
often substantially. John Berry read and insightfully commented on the
entire manuscript. Edward Nell and Floria Thomson helped to clarify the
introduction and epilogue. The editors at Macmillan gave the book a
consistent style
As the book argues, learning does not stop when a technique is commer
cialized. Nor does it stop when a book is published. Users and readers alike
learn from the product, and their feedback advances the knowledge of
inventors and authors. That a successful technique leads to further new
techniques is a theme of this book. To advance knowledge in a way that
brings about further advances is the book's goal.
Ross THOMSON
ix