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Learning and Technological Change PDF

299 Pages·1993·32.012 MB·English
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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

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