Materials and Man's Needs Materials Science and Engineering -- Volume IV, Aspects of Materials Technology Abroad (1975) / Chapter Skim
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Technological Innovation in the International Sphere
Technological Innovation in the International Sphere
Pages 284-300
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From page 284... ...
Fortunately new natural processes arise to get around such obstacles, today's MC being a manifestation of one of these natural processes. They are well on their way to creating a supranational network for transferring ideas, technology, know-how, and well-being that bypasses official channels which are often cumbersome or ineffective.
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Their main conclusions for various industrial sectors are summarized in Table 8.65. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, the conclusion seems to be that for the civilian sectors studied very few large gaps appear except in solid-state electronics and computers.
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From page 286... ...
has remained the technological leader, although its commercialization and marketing position in the field of consumer electronics has been particularly challenged by Japan in recent years. Virtually all the significant new devices and sophisticated processes for making them have emanated and are still emanating from private industry in the U.S.
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From page 287... ...
(e) Identification and understanding of market opportunities are critical for successful innovation.
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From page 288... ...
However, in several instances strong industries in small countries have been able to respond to demands for innovation on world markets. Management of Innovation Technological innovation poses many difficult and sometimes novel problems to management, given the uncertainties and long-time horizons involved, and given the need for communications across disciplinary and functional 1
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From page 289... ...
transfer of technological knowledge is mainly "personembodied". These characteristics suggest a number of objectives for government policy, such as: - ensuring industrial competition, as the main pressure for technological innovation; - ensuring equitable rewards for innovations, through the tax and patent systems; - ensuring that regulations, codes, and standards take account of both the social costs and benefits of the innovative process, as well as the flexibility and pluralism required for successful innovation; having active regional and manpower policies to deal with the changes in industrial and skill patterns brought about by technological change;
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Perhaps the most important single feature of the method was the effort to measure a pattern or profile of successful innovation. Much earlier work had attempted to look at single factors held to be important.
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Any individual who made a decisive contribution to the innovation by actively and enthusiastically promoting its progress through critical stages. Nationality of Innovating Organizations Of the 27 innovations developed outside the U.K., 14 were successes and 13 failures.
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The 29 pairs are listed as follows: Scientific Instruments Amlec Eddy-Current Crack Detector Milk Analyzers 3. Foreign-Bodies-in-Bottles Detector 4.
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¢iv) Successful innovators make more effective use of outside technology and scientific advice, even though they perform more of the work in-house.
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From page 294... ...
The rest is accounted for by marketing and research and development; -- Larger American size, springing from a larger market, has conferred larger financial resources for marketing and research and development; -- Management skills, and training in them, are a second factor America's technological predominance; an -- The dramatic growth of the U.S. Government's spending on research and development ...
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From page 295... ...
'miracle' as the established giant; -- If the small firm plays a key role in invention, the large is essential for mass marketing and production, for development in industries where plant is expensive, and for fast development on a broad front; -- The strength of America's advanced technology.industries lies in the remarkable dialectic between large and small companies, in a ring where the antitrust ringmaster is always promoting competition, and where there is a massive public as well as private market for advanced ideas; -- If the strength of America is its practical men, its skill in carrying out specific tasks, its weakness perhaps lies in the absence of a philosophy Poor policy. It has been called a reservoir of undirected power; -- What distinguishes American support for advanced technology is the pursuit of difficult goals, under competitive conditions, at high speed, and in an economy which already possesses a huge highly skilled labor force and powerful industrial firms; -- West European states spend only a quarter as much as America, and a smaller proportion of national income.
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From page 296... ...
What we are seeing, in fact, is the emergence of an increasingly international science, technology, and economic system in which the very concept of superiority and inferiority has less and less meaning. Other industrialized nations most likely will continue to close the gap, but will approach a common asymptote with us -- that is, reach the same approximate level -- rather than pass us on a steeply rising curve.
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From page 297... ...
The project grant system has fostered a creative scientific entrepreneurship which stimulates greater originality in science and more rapid identification and exploitation of potential applications of basic science. Current Perceptions - Both inside and outside academic ranks, there is serious disenchantment with the system of graduate training in science.
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From page 298... ...
The result was to overprice the innovation process in these programs, which caused the lag in civilian technology and the gradual deterioration in our advantage over competitors. It is not surprising that the lag particularly affected the low-technology or mature industries, whose innovative investments tend to be most sensitive to economics." And further: "Full utilization of the current R&D volume, redeployed for civil purposes, would imply an enormous expansion in growth or transition to a much
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From page 299... ...
to external influences." Brooks concludes: "I believe that the United States is experiencing only a few years earlier some of the forces and trends that will become worldwide among industrialized countries: saturation of the population able to undertake science and technology, competition of social welfare and other public expenditures for the government budget, increased public preoccupation with the side effects of technology, disenchantment with science on both the right and the left of the political spectrum, and increased preoccupation of society with equality rather than excellence. "Furthermore, the scientific system is increasingly international, so that the very concept of national superiority in science or technology is obsolescent.
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