Showing papers in "Industrial and Corporate Change in 1993"

Technological Accumulation and Industrial Growth: Contrasts Between Developed and Developing Countries

Abstract: Several areas of economic analysis have given renewed attention during the 1980s to the long run importance of technological learning and technical change. These issues have become a central feature in the new trade and growth theories (e.g. Krugman, 1986; Lucas, 1988; Grossman and Helpman, 1990; Romer, 1986, 1990). They have emerged as one of the major factors explaining differences among the developed countries in growth and trade performance (e.g. Fagerberg, 1987, 1988;Cantwell, 1989), and they underlie analyses of the extent to which, as a result of differing growth paths, economies with different initial income levels have been converging or diverging over time (e.g. Abramovitz, 1986; Baumol, 1986; De Long, g 1988; Dowrick and Gemmell, 1991). This paper contributes to these areas of debate. It draws heavily on the j understanding of technological accumulation in the industrialized world in I order to illuminate the situation in contemporary developing countries. N And, since the basic processes of technological accumulation and technical | change differ fundamentally between the agricultural and industrial sectors I in low income economies, it focuses on the industrial sector. This is the sector in which, at least relative to earlier expectations, disappointment at the realized extent of'catching up' over the last four or five decades is perhaps I greatest. o Even at the beginning of that period, it was widely recognized that there ' were difficulties in transferring agricultural technologies from developed to

Technological Regimes and Firm Bebavior

Abstract: Are firm behaviour and organization related to the specific technological environment in which firms are operating? The now enormous literature on technology strategy and organization has provided a large number of contributions in the field of business strategy, organizational theory, economics and business history.

Strategic Deterrence Among Multipoint Competitors

Abstract: Firms often encounter the same rivals in more than one market. Some conclude that these "multipoint" rivals should deter one another from competing, but find little empirical support. This paper pr...

Computer-based Automation and the Governance of Vertical Transactions

Abstract: The purpose of tbis paper is to analyse tbe impact of computer-based production technologies on firms' choice of governance mode for vertical transactions. We argue that in the long run diffusion of the new technologies should lead to a wider use of arm's length relationships with suppliers of increasingly standardized intermediate goods. In the early stage of diffusion, however, vertical transactions should tend to be internalized under hierarchical control. In any case, network configurations based on subcontracting are negatively affected. Evidence supporting these arguments is provided through a 'laboratory' study of maJet-or-buy decisions made by 100 adopter firms in tbe Italian metalworking industry.

Business Management in Japan: A Comparative Historical Study

Abstract: More than 30 years ago, a group of economists developed the so-called ‘convergence theory’, maintaining that the differences along national lines in the social aspect of the business enterprise were destined to disappear because the ‘logic of industrialism’ rule out differences based on the traditional social or cultural structure of each country.1 However, the process of ‘convergence’ in fact takes a very long time and, in addition, the advocates of the ‘convergence theory’ seem to have overlooked the fact that the ‘logic of industrialism’ itself should differ from country to country, according to its degree of international backwardness at the start of each country’s industrialization.2