Technology, Innovation and Industrial Economics: Institutionalist Perspectives: Essays in Honor of William E. Cole

160 Pages·1998·3.691 MB·English

by  Dilmus D. James, John W. Mogab (auth.), Dilmus D. James, John W. Mogab (eds.)

Technology, Innovation and Industrial Economics:
Institutionalist Perspectives
Essays in Honor of
William E. Cole
T echnology, Innovation
and Industrial Economics:
Institutionalist
Perspectives
Essays in Honor of
William E. Cole
Edited by
DILMUS D. JAMES
0/
University Texas at El Paso
and
JOHN W. MOGAB
Southwest Texas State University
.
.,
~
SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from
the Library of Congress.
ISBN 978-1-4613-7608-8 ISBN 978-1-4615-5697-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4615-5697-8
Copyright @ 1998 by Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers New York in 1998
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1998
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical,
photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of
the publisher, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
Printed on acid-free paper
This volume is dedicated to William E. Cole, a mentor, colleague and
friend whose work inspired many oft he ideas and insights contained
in this collection and essays.
CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTORS .................................................................................................... ix
PREFACE ................................................................................................................. xi
CHAPTER 1 Introduction
Dilmus D. James and John W. Mogab .......................................... 1
CHAPTER 2 Industrial Policy and Protectionism in Post-WWII Japan
John W. Mogab ........................................................................... 15
CHAPTER 3 The Role of Organization in Shaping the Technological
Capabilities of Firms: An Examination of the Continuous
Improvement Firm
Stella S. Schramm ....................................................................... 35
CHAPTER 4 The Industrial District and Continuous Improvement
Steven Wilson .............................................................................. 53
CHAPTER 5 The Firm: A Strategically Learning Institution
John Groenewegen ...................................................................... 71
CHAPTER 6 An Opportunistic Interpretation of Adam Smith's Inquiry into the
Nature and Interrelations of Inventions, Entrepreneurship and
Innovations
Hans E. Jensen ............................................................................. 91
CHAPTER 7 Science, Technology and Innovation: Issues for the
Neostructuralist Approach to Socioeconomic Development in
Latin America
Dilmus D. James ........................................................................ 105
CHAPTER 8 Some Possible Differences Between American and European
Institutionalism
Geoffrey M. Hodgson ................................................................ 127
INDEX ................................................................................................................... 147
CONTRIBUTORS
JOHN GROENEWEGEN is associate professor of economics at the Erasmus
University Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He is fellow at the Tinbergen Institute and
the Erasmus Institute of Philosophy and Economics. He is researcher at the Centre
of French Studies of the University of Utrecht. He is past president of AFEE and
currently general secretary of the European Association for Evolutionary Political
Economy.
GEOFFREY M. HODGSON is University Lecturer in Economics at the Judge
Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. He has held visiting
academic and research positions in Austria, Germany, Japan, Sweden and the
United States. His publications include Economics and Evolution (1993),
Economics and Institutions (1988) and The Democratic Economy (1984) and over
100 articles in academic books and journals.
DILMUS D. JAMES is Professor of Economics and Hanley Chair of Business
Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso. After completing a BA and
MA (1958) at the University of Texas at Austin, he earned a Ph.D. at Michigan
State University (1970). He is past president of the North American Economics and
Finance Association and of the Association of Evolutionary Economics. His
research and writing have centered on technology capacity-building and science and
technology policy in developing countries.
HANS E. JENSEN, Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, received the Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in
1961. His teaching and research interests lie in the history of economic though. In
research, his emphasis is on inquiries into the origin and nature of economic
paradigms and on investigations of the role of institutions in the work of the
inventors of new theories. He has published articles and essays on the works of
Clarence E. Ayres and Thorstein Veblen, John Maynard Keynes, Alfred Marshall,
Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill, Joseph A. Schumpeter, and Adam Smith.
JOHN W. MOGAB, Associate Professor of Economics at Southwest Texas State
University, received his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1981.
His teaching and research interests are in comparative economics systems. He co
authored The Economics of Total Quality Management (Blackwell Publishers,
1995) and has published articles on Institutionalist thought and the continuous
improvement fIrm.
STELLA S. SCHRAMM has worked both as a researcher and practitioner of
economic development for 19 years. Her work has focused especially on
technology development and its role in international competitive strategy. She
received her Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Tennessee and served as
doctoral fellow at the UN Institute for New Technologies, the Netherlands; research
professor at the Center for the Research and Teaching of Economics (CIDE) in
Mexico City and Director of the Economic Development CouncillNew Orleans &
the River Region. She recently authored a report on the technology strategies
available to industry clusters on behalf of the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization in Vienna. Dr. Schramm is currently working for the
Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce to develop the economic development strategy
for a national laboratory community.
STEVEN R. WILSON is an industrial economist in the Quality Standardization and
Metrology branch of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization in
Vienna. His current work focuses on the implications of standards and technical
regulation for frrms in developing countries. In addition, he is conducting research
on the trade implications of standards and technical regulation for fIrms in
developing countries. His most recent book Beyond Quality: An Agenda for
Improving Manufacturing in Developing Countries (Aldershot: Edward Elgar,
1995) explores the application of continuous improvement technologies in
developing countries.
PREFACE
Two motivations led to the publication of this book. The most obvious is our desire
to recognize the valuable research contributions that William E. Cole has made to
institutionalist economics, as well as his long career as a teacher at both the
undergraduate and graduate levels. The second motive grew out of the character of
Cole's institutionalist thinking and writing. Institutionalists, along with many other
heterodox economists, have frequently been criticized for concentrating on a
spirited critique of traditional, orthodox economics without proffering any concrete
policy alternatives. The editors are compelled to admit that at times, this
observation has been accurate. The editors are convinced, however, that the corpus
of William Cole's work has centered on the positive insights that institutionalism
can convey. The emphasis has been on how institutional economics can inform
policy and the essays in this volume, to a very large extent, reflect this bent.
The original idea for the book came from Hans E. Jensen, one of the contributors to
the volume. It was a capital idea and the editors express gratitude for his initial
impetus and for guidance that he supplied in the beginning and throughout the
project.
We are grateful as well to all of the other contributors who, despite the press of
professional and personal obligations, provided their manuscripts, and editorial
revisions, in a timely fashion. Contributors include former students of William
Cole, a colleague from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, and colleagues from
a broader range of academia. The editors sincerely thank them all.
The editors' initial contact with Kluwer Academic Publishers was Zachary Rolnick,
economics editor and his early enthusiasm was welcome indeed. The project
proceeded under the direction of Ms. Ranak K. Jasani, acquisitions editor for
economics, who showed great patience and was helpful at all stages of the project.
The same can be said for Ms. Yana Lambert, editorial assistant, who provided
detailed editorial advice. The editors express profound gratitude to each of them.
A special word of appreciation goes to Ms. Sigrid Westphal who
performed her magic in producing the manuscript despite her duties as Instructor
for the Department of Marketing and Management at the University of Texas at EI
Paso.
Dilmus D. James
University of Texas at EI Paso
John W. Mogab
Southwest Texas State University