Industrial Innovation among Small and Medium‐Sized Firms in a Declining Region

Abstract

This paper explores the impact of new technology adoption upon the market performance of small industrial firms. Survey data from a six-sector sample of Western New York manufacturers are presented. The results suggest a positive relationship between new technology adoption and growth of exports, value-added, and total sales. A central finding of the study is that flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) confer different types of technical and commercial advantages across sectors. Two broad groups of process innovators are identified:(1) those that adopt new technology primarily to cut unit costs; and (2) those that aspire toward greater production flexibility. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the regional development implications that flow from the empirical results.

Assessing the Regulationist View of History: An Analysis of Employment Change in America, 1940–1989*

“…The restructuring of the 1980s included a general shift of capital away from traditional manufacturing enterprise toward arms, finance, and business services (Markusen and Carlson 1989;Bartholomew, Joray, and Kochanowski 1986), the emergence of new industries (such as consumer microelectronics), and the wholesale rationalization of traditional industries (e.g., Bluestone and Harrison 1982). This general restructuring of the economy included a thorough reorganization of the production process (e.g., Knudsen et al 1994;MacPherson 1994;Rutherford 1994) and a dismantling of the prevailing production relation as firms became increasingly able to connect investment policy with labor relations policy (Clark 1989 ; Massey 1984; Warde 1985). Because the restructuring process included a reorganization of the labor process, and because such a reorganization proved difficult in traditional manufacturing locales, a concomitant locational shift in manufacturing occurred within the United States that favored the South and West over the Midwest and Northeast, giving rise to "new industrial spaces" (Scott 1988;Storper and Scott 1989;Storper and Walker 1989) that were more receptive to the emerging relationships between capital and labor.…”

Production System Changes in the Korean Consumer Electronics Sector

“…A variable for the adoption of new technology is straightforward. About two-thirds of the sample have adopted new process technologies such as CAD, NC, PLC, automatic conveyor systems, and industrial robot, in order to increase productivity and quality (compare Knudsen et al 1994;MacPherson 1994;Rutherford 1994). For the dimension of functionally flexible use of labor, work range increase of skilled labor is used as a proxy variable.…”

“…Several types of production system change have been discussed within the framework of change from Fordist mass production to post-Fordist or flexible production methods. Various perspectives of viewing flexible production (Sayer and Walker 1992;Thilander 1992) have people have emphasized one or some specific changes: greater use of programmable or computer-networked machinery (Knudsen et al 1994;MacPherson 1994;Roller and Tombak 1990;Tombak and deMeyer 1988;Bessant and Haywood 1986), more complicated structure of material or part sourcing and closer and intimate relationship between companies (Scott 1988;Walker 1988), and emergence of multi-skilled or so-called polyvalent workers and greater use of temporary or part-time labor (Florida and Kenney 1994;Rutherford 1994;Pinch et al 1991;Christopherson 1989).…”

La gestión de la innovación en las empresas vascas. El papel de las herramientas de gestión de la innovación en la eficiencia de la misma y en la de los resultados de innovación.

“…Así, en la revisión de Becheikh, más de la mitad (55%) de los estudios incluidos en su revisión considera el tamaño de la empresa como variable explicativa del comportamiento innovador (Becheikh et al, 2006). En cuanto a su efecto, algunos autores defienden el efecto positivo sobre el tamaño de la innovación (Damanpour, 1992, Majumdar, 1995, Tsai, 2001, Stock et al, 2002, existiendo también otras investigaciones cuyos resultados no defienden esta hipótesis (Bertschek and Entorf, 1996, Acs and Audretsch, 1987, Veugelers and Cassiman, 1999, MacPherson, 1994, MacPherson, 1998, Love and Ashcroft, 1999.…”