Nations, institutions, and technological development

International Journal of Technology Management

Volumn 12, Issue 5-6, 1996, Pages 651-678

  Zysman, J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

Author keywords

Development; Technology

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EFFECTS; SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS; TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER;

TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT;

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT MANAGEMENT;

EID: 0030421546     PISSN: 02675730     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Sabel, C.F. and Zeitlin, J. (1985) 'Historical alternatives to mass production: politics, markets, and technology in nineteenth-century industrialization', Past and Present, August, Vol. 108 pp. 133-176.
2. Some propose the American system has distinct capacities to create fundamental breakthrough technologies that generate new markets. The American comeback in electronics in the 1990s has been rooted in those capacities. Of course, any such argument would have to account for the slow pace of American innovation in rail or auto and the European and Japanese innovations in these areas.
3. This conclusion is based on work at BRIE. The work on the semiconductor industry has been conducted under the direction of Michael Borrus. See for example: Michael Borrus, 'The Regional Architecture of Global Electronics: Trajectories, Linkages and Access to Technology', in New Challenges to International Cooperation: Adjustment of Finns, Policies, and Organizations to Global Competition, Peter Gourevitch and Paolo Guerrieri, eds. (University of California, San Diego, 1993). The work on Micro-systems technology has been begun as a joint project with WZB in Berlin. It is being conducted by Keith Darden.
4. BRIE work on telecommunications has been directed by François Bar. See for example François Bar and Michael Borrus, The Future of Networking in the US, CEC-RACE, Brussels, 1992; and BRIE monograph, (Berkeley: Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, 1994).
5. BRIE work on telecommunications has been directed by François Bar. See for example François Bar and Michael Borrus, The Future of Networking in the US, CEC-RACE, Brussels, 1992; and BRIE monograph, (Berkeley: Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy, 1994).
6. This is not fanciful. The conclusion is based on interviews and discussions in the computer industry.
7. This analysis stands, therefore, in contrast to work such as that by Kitschelt. (See Herbert Kitschelt, 'Industrial governance structures, innovation strategies, and the case of Japan: sectoral cross-national comparative analysis?' in International Organization, Vol. 45, No. 4 (1991) pp. 453-493). The approach in this article can only reach the conclusions that particular technologies match specific institutional capacities. A tension between capacities and task is difficult to explore. Competition among multiple approaches is difficult to explore. The article is interesting, but ultimately misleading.
8. Interviews.
9. Stiglitz, J. (1993) 'Financial markets and development', Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol. 5, No. 4; and Nelson, R. (Editor) National Innovation Systems, a Comparative Study, Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
10. Borrus, M. (1992) 'Re-organizing Asia: Japan's new development trajectory and the regional division of Labor', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 53, Berkeley, California.
11. Abernathy, W. (1978) 'The productivity dilemma: roadblock to innovation in the automobile industry', Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
12. Patel, P. and Pavitt, K. (1992) 'The innovative performance of the world's largest firms: some new evidence', in The Economics of Innovation and New Technology.
13. Archibugi, D. and Michie, J. (1993) 'The globalisation of technology: myths and realities', University of Cambridge Research Papers in Management Studies 1992-1993, No. 14, University of Cambridge Press, Cambridge.
14. Guerrieri, P. (1991) 'Technology and international trade performance in the most advanced countries', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 49, (Berkeley, California); Guerrieri and Milana, 'Technological and Trade Competition in High-Tech Products', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 54, Berkeley, California, 1991; Dosi, Pavitt and Soete, 'The Economics of Technological Change and International Trade', Brighton, Wheatsheaf, Harvester Press and New York; New York University Press, 1990.
15. Guerrieri, P. (1991) 'Technology and international trade performance in the most advanced countries', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 49, (Berkeley, California); Guerrieri and Milana, 'Technological and Trade Competition in High-Tech Products', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 54, Berkeley, California, 1991; Dosi, Pavitt and Soete, 'The Economics of Technological Change and International Trade', Brighton, Wheatsheaf, Harvester Press and New York; New York University Press, 1990.
16. Guerrieri, P. (1991) 'Technology and international trade performance in the most advanced countries', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 49, (Berkeley, California); Guerrieri and Milana, 'Technological and Trade Competition in High-Tech Products', BRIE Working Paper, Vol. 54, Berkeley, California, 1991; Dosi, Pavitt and Soete, 'The Economics of Technological Change and International Trade', Brighton, Wheatsheaf, Harvester Press and New York; New York University Press, 1990.
17. Patel and Pavitt (1992), see above.
18. Zysman, J. (1977) 'Political strategies for industrial order: state, market and industry in France', University of California Press, Berkeley: and Chalmers Johnson, Laura D'Andrea Tyson and John Zysman, (Eds.) Politics and Productivity: the Real Story of Why Japan Works, Ballinger, New York.
19. Herrigel, G. (1989) ' Industrial order and the politics of industrial change', in Katzenstein's Industry and Politics in West Germany, Cornell University Press.
20. The set of sectors chosen for consideration include emerging industries where one follows from the beginning how technology bets are made and assess whether they cumulate into product and market choices that define a distinct national trajectory. In mature industries, one can look back across a pattern of development and consider whether a distinct path of technologically rooted market position is evident. The set also includes a series of different technological foundations - metal bending, electronics, chemicals and biology. The purpose would be to watch technological development at different points along the path from creation to maturity on the one hand and in several different research and educational infrastructures. In research sparked by the analyses presented here, a group of researchers have begun considering just these kinds of questions. The industries considered are diverse: Chemicals, Autos, Consumer and Professional Electronic Goods, Semiconductor, Digital Telecom Equipment and Services, Bio-technology, and Microsystems. These industries were not selected by formal criteria, but were drawn together according to individual interests and expertise. They do provide, however, a good sample. Sectors are defined in market terms; that is, the sectors are defined by sets of products competing for the same final use. In that way, a variety of technological solutions can be seen as competing. For example, image processing systems can be designed to use expensive hardware or less expensive hardware, depending on the underlying software. The choice turns on such matters as maintenance, skills of the users, labor costs, and the like. It is important to note clearly that the definition is not based on technology. Otherwise, if we define sectors in terms of technology alone, then we explain technological outcomes - sectors - in terms of technological causes. This is not only tautological, but ends up defining a particular way of approaching the problem as the only way - which creates unintentionally but inevitably a form of technological determinism. The countries include Japan, the United States, and different European countries as indicated by the sector.
21. Stiglitz, J. (1991) 'Social absorption capability and innovation', Center for Economic Policy Research CEPR publication No. 292, November, Stanford University, Stanford.
22. Nelson, R. (1992) 'National innovation systems, a retrospective on a study', Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 1, No. 2.
23. Lundvall, B-A, (1992) National Systems of Innovation: Towards a Theory of Innovation and Interactive Learning, Pinter Publishers, London.
24. Soskice, D. (1993) 'Innovation strategies of companies: a comparative institutional explanation of cross country differences', Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, July. Incomplete draft cited with permission of the author.
25. Borrus, M. (1993); Dahmen, E. (1988) 'Development blocs in industrial economics', Scandinavian Economics Review, Vol. 1.
26. Zysman, J. (1977) and Governments, Markets and Growth, Cornell University Press, 1983.
27. Soskice, (1993).
28. Dosi, G., Marsili, O., Orsenigo, L. and Salvatore, R. (1993) 'Learning, market selection and the evolution of industrial structures', Consortium on Competitiveness and Cooperation, University of California at Berkeley, Center for Research in Management, Working Paper No. 9-93. Berkely, California, March.
29. Lundvall (1992).
30. Borrus (1993).
31. Borrus 1993).
32. Joseph Stiglitz, op cit.
33. Stiglitz (1993) and Stiglitz, et al., Implicit Contracts, Labor Mobility and Unemployment, Cambridge, Massachusetts; NBER Working Paper No. 2316, 1987.
34. Soskice, (1993).
35. Soskice, (1993).
36. This argument is well developed by Pontusson and Swenson, as well as Iverson.
37. Zysman, 1983.
38. O'Brien, R. (1992) Global Financial Integration: The End of Geography, The Royal Institute of International Affairs and Pinter Publishers, London.
39. Polanyi, K. (1944) The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time, Beacon Press, Boston.
40. Argues from a different perspective in the sociological literature, see M. Granovetter, 'Economic Action and Social Structure, A Theory of Embeddedness', American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 481-485.
41. Noble, G. (1992) 'The politics of HDTV in Japan', prepared for the 1992 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, September 3-6.
42. Samuels, R. and Levy, J. (1991) 'Institutions and innovation: research collaboration as technology strategy in Japan', in Lynn Mytelka, (Editor) Strategic Partnerships and the World Economy, Pinter Publishers, London.
43. Krugman, P. (1986) Strategic Trade Policy and the New International Economics, MIT Press, Cambridge; Tyson, L. D'A, (1992) Who's Bashing Whom? Trade Conflict in High Technology Industries, Institute of International Economics, Washington, D.C., Gerschenkron, A. (1962) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
44. Krugman, P. (1986) Strategic Trade Policy and the New International Economics, MIT Press, Cambridge; Tyson, L. D'A, (1992) Who's Bashing Whom? Trade Conflict in High Technology Industries, Institute of International Economics, Washington, D.C., Gerschenkron, A. (1962) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
45. Krugman, P. (1986) Strategic Trade Policy and the New International Economics, MIT Press, Cambridge; Tyson, L. D'A, (1992) Who's Bashing Whom? Trade Conflict in High Technology Industries, Institute of International Economics, Washington, D.C., Gerschenkron, A. (1962) Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge.
46. Buigues, P. and Jacquemin, A. (1993) 'Foreign direct investments and exports in the Common Market; theoretical, empirical and policy issues', in Mason, M. and Encarnation, D. (Editors) Does Ownership Matter? Japanese Multinationals in Europe, Cornell University Press, New York.
47. Borrus, M. (1988) Competing for Control: America's Stake in Microelectronics, Ballinger, New York; Borrus, M., Millstein, J. and Zysman, J. with the assistance of Arbisser, A. and O'Neill, D. 'Trade and Development in the Semiconductor Industry: Japanese Challenges and American Response', in Tyson, L. D'A. and Zysman, J. (Editors) (1983) American Industry in International Competition, Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
48. Borrus, M. (1988) Competing for Control: America's Stake in Microelectronics, Ballinger, New York; Borrus, M., Millstein, J. and Zysman, J. with the assistance of Arbisser, A. and O'Neill, D. 'Trade and Development in the Semiconductor Industry: Japanese Challenges and American Response', in Tyson, L. D'A. and Zysman, J. (Editors) (1983) American Industry in International Competition, Cornell University Press, Ithaca.
49. Cohen, S. and Zysman, J. (1987) Manufacturing Matters: The Myth of the Post-Industrial Economy, Basic Books, New York.
50. Weber, S. and Zysman, J. (1992) 'The Risk That Mercantilism Will Shape the Next Security System', in Sandholtz, W, et al.(ed.), The Highest Stakes: The Economic Foundations of the Next Security System, Oxford University Press, New York; Zysman, J. (1992) 'Trade, technology and national competition', International Journal of Technology Management, Special Issue on Strengthening Corporate and National Competitiveness through Technology, Vol. 7, No. 1/2/3, pp. 161-189. Based on a paper presented at an OECD conference in Paris, June 1990, (ed.) Bela Gold, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 1992.
51. Weber, S. and Zysman, J. (1992) 'The Risk That Mercantilism Will Shape the Next Security System', in Sandholtz, W, et al.(ed.), The Highest Stakes: The Economic Foundations of the Next Security System, Oxford University Press, New York; Zysman, J. (1992) 'Trade, technology and national competition', International Journal of Technology Management, Special Issue on Strengthening Corporate and National Competitiveness through Technology, Vol. 7, No. 1/2/3, pp. 161-189. Based on a paper presented at an OECD conference in Paris, June 1990, (ed.) Bela Gold, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd., 1992.
52. Borrus (1988); Borrus, Millstein, and Zysman with Arbisser and O'Neill (1983).