This book highlights the economic relevance of the so-called low-tech industries and firms. Non R&D intensive firms continue to be the economic backbone of several developed industrial countries. They form the core of National Innovation Systems and contribute significantly to growth and employment. However, due to their lack of R&D activity, they are easily overlooked in the general innovation debate. This book provides latest empirical findings on the current economic relevance and specific innovation strategies and management of non-R&D intensive firms in Germany. It discusses their future role in a knowledge driven economy as well as possible implications for innovation and technology policy. An outcome of several years of dedicated research conducted at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), this book will prove of immense value to researchers and policy makers dealing with innovation and knowledge strategy.
This very valuable book collects together excellent empirical essays on what amounts to a silent majority in advanced industrial societies: low and medium tech manufacturing industries. Such industries employ more people and make a larger contribution to aggregate value creation than their more lauded high-tech counterparts and moreover, they constitute extremely important customer industries for such higher tech producers. They may be neglected, but they are not going away indeed, this volume shows that they are growing and adapting to the new competitive challenges of globalization. Attending to the dynamics of innovation and change in this large sector is crucial for understanding processes of social and economic restructuring in Europe today. The essays in this volume are the first place to look for insight into this extremely important area of political economic life in Europe. Gary Herrigel, University of Chicago, US Innovation in Low-Tech Firms and Industries challenges the currently fashionable notion that the advent of a knowledge-based economy demands that all social resources should be diverted to high-technology industries. Hirsch-Kreinsen and Jacobson point out these constitute a small part of even the most advanced economies. Attention has been diverted from the important innovation processes which occur in low and medium technology (LMT) sectors. This volume calls on us to achieve a much better and wiser balance in our industrial policy. Terrence McDonough, National University of Ireland, Galway The authors of this book make an urgently needed provocative point: ordinary engineering and technology ( low-tech ) continue to be of greater importance, in our knowledge society , than high-tech activities, and they may be similarly demanding by the competence they require and produce. This counteracts the exaggerated hype about high-tech firms or activities. The high-tech classification itself is highly arbitrary and often superficial. The authors show in what way low-tech activities and firms are important, and how they can be cultivated to buttress the economic strength of industrial and post-industrial nations. Researchers and policymakers, please take note! Arndt Sorge, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, Germany and University of Groningen, The Netherlands It is a general understanding that the advanced economies are currently undergoing a fundamental transformation into knowledge-based societies. There is a firm belief that this is based on the development of high-tech industries. Correspondingly, in this scenario low-tech sectors appear to be less important. A critique of this widely held belief is the starting point of this book. It is often overlooked that many of the current innovation activities are linked to developments inside the realm of low-tech. Thus the general objective of the book is to contribute to a discussion concerning the relevance of low-tech industries for industrial innovativeness in the emerging knowledge economy. Providing examples of both theoretical and empirical research in this area, Innovation in Low-tech Firms and Industries will be of great interest to postgraduate students and academic researchers in innovation studies. It will also appeal to policy makers in the field of innovation policy as well as industrial economists and sociologists interested in traditional industries in advanced economies.
This volume brings together reflections and research findings on so-called lowtech industries. The accepted wisdom seems to accept that mature, industrialised nations are undergoing a fundamental transformation into the much vaunted Knowledge Society. There is a firm belief that in this situation the advancement of high-tech industries is essential for growth and development. Correspondingly, in this scenario so-called low-tech sectors appear to be less important in and for the major industrialised countries. The starting point of this volume is a fundamental critique of this widely held belief. In fact, many of the processes we witness today are based on developments outside the realm of high-tech and lowtech industries are important not only for employment and growth but also for knowledge formation in European economies.
This book provides an overview of recent, predominantly European, thinking on the issues and challenges for innovation management in the modern, knowledge-based economy. The topic is explored in four directions: the growing importance of services and of innovation in services; the growing interest in competence-based approaches of strategy and innovation; the role of technology in innovation processes; and the increasing importance of knowledge management in innovation management. Each direction is briefly introduced by the editor. The contributions come from universities and management schools in Germany, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands and the United States.
This book will appeal to social scientists, economists and students of innovation and entrepreneurship studies. Policy-makers and company representatives will also find much of interest in this book, with its surprising insights into a field that has b
In October 2007, the U.S. National Academies and the Iranian Institute for Advanced Studies in Basic Science organized the first of a series of planned U.S.-Iranian workshops on the topic "Science as a Gateway to Understanding." This new workshop series is a component of the broader effort of the National Academies to support bilateral workshops and exchange visits in a variety of fields with a number of Iranian institutions that began in 2000. This book includes papers that were presented at the workshop and summaries of the discussions that followed some of the presentations. At the conclusion of the workshop there was general agreement that the presentations on many aspects of science and scientific cooperation that have a bearing on mutual understanding were an important first step. Several participants underscored that the next workshop should emphasize how scientific cooperation can lead in concrete terms to improved understanding among both academic and political leaders from the two countries.
Revolutionary account of the transformative potential of the knowledge economy Adam Smith and Karl Marx recognized that the best way to understand the economy is to study the most advanced practice of production. Today that practice is no longer conventional manufacturing: it is the radically innovative vanguard known as the knowledge economy. In every part of the production system it remains a fringe excluding the vast majority of workers and businesses. This book explores the hidden nature of the knowledge economy and its possible futures. The confinement of the knowledge economy to these insular vanguards has become a driver of economic stagnation and inequality throughout the world. Traditional mass production has stopped working as a shortcut to economic growth. But the alternative—a deepened and socially inclusive form of the knowledge economy—continues to lie beyond reach in even the richest countries. The shape of contemporary politics on both the left and the right reflects a failure to come to terms with this dilemma and to overcome it. Unger explains the knowledge economy in the truncated and confined form that it has today and proposes the way to a knowledge economy for the many: changes not just in economic institutions but also in education, culture, and politics. Just as Smith and Marx did in their time, he uses an understanding of the most advanced practice of production to rethink both economics and the economy as a whole.
Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy is intended for managers who have practiced the best of quality and re-engineering management techniques and are ready to transform their organizations with the systematic notions of knowledge creation and application. It is for organization leaders who prefer to be inspired with innovation strategy than hit over the head with change management techniques. It does not deal with barriers, hurdles, or conflicts to be resolved; rather, it paints a possible vision of how we can take advantage of our collective learning to move an enterprise forward. This book provides the reader with a sound, practical framework for instituting innovation strategy beyond the traditional definition of flow of parts or finances. At the core is an understanding of the dual value of knowledge (content) and innovation (process) using 'real-time' learning as the methodology. Innovation Strategy for the Knowledge Economy introduces new managerial concepts such as: Value-System versus Value-Chain Strategic Business Network (SBN) versus Strategic Business Unit (SBU) Customer Success versus Customer Satisfaction It is an invaluable resource for both managers and organization leaders. Debra Mae Amidon is Founder and Chief Strategist of Entovation International, a global innovation research and consulting network with outposts throughout the world. Her specialties include: knowledge management, learning networks, customer innovation, and enterprise transformation. Ms. Amidon holds degrees from Boston University, Columbia and MIT, where she was an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow.
This book presents the first multidimensional investigation of KIE in the context of low-tech industries and gives insights in paradox conditions and specific mechanisms, using the example of the German textile industry. Therefore, the author solves conceptual inconsistencies and develops an alternative framework referring to systemic concepts of sectoral innovation systems and KIE as well as to the concept of institutional entrepreneurs. As a result, the deviation of willful actors from a restricting institutional environment and sources of entrepreneurial opportunities can be investigated more comprehensively.
