The Determinants Of The Adoption Of Advanced Manufacturing Technology

The paper investigates empirically the decision of firms to adopt ‘Advanced Manufacturing Technologies’ (AMT) based on a comprehensive specification of a ‘rank model’ of technology adoption using firm-level data for Swiss manufacturing. The explanatory variables include numerous dimensions of (anticipated) benefits from and costs of technology adoption allowing for uncertainty as well as for information and adjustment costs. Moreover, the effect of complementarities between various functional groups of AMT (design, fabrication, communication, etc.) as well as of learning from the use of previous technology vintages within such functional groups is analyzed, Finally, the size-dependence of the adoption decision is studied in detail. The model yields a quite robust pattern of explanation across estimates with different adoption variables (time period of introduction of AMT, intensity of use of AMT, etc.) with plausible differences of the results based on the alternative adoption measures used.     

The Impact Of Technology Adoption On Firm Productivity *

In this paper an attempt is made to theoretically and empirically explore the impact of technology adoption on firm output and productivity. The theory is based upon a modified Cobb Douglas production function with capital, labour and technology adoption as arguments. Three versions of the model with varying degrees of endogeneity are developed and then tested upon a data set relating to the adoption of five different process technologies by 217 firms in the UK engineering industry over the period 1981–1990. All the results indicate that technology adoption has a positive impact on output and productivity.     

Establishment Level Earnings,Technology And The Growth Of Inequality: Evidence From Britain

It is often argued that technical change is responsible for the increase in wage inequality in Britain and the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. In this paper we examine this argument using data from individuals and establishments. It is found that the presence of micro-electronic technologies in workplaces is associated with higher earnings, especially for skilled workers. Decompositions suggest that technical change could have been a cause of the increase in skills premium for highly skilled workers. Nevertheless, our view is that the correlation between wages and plant-level technology is mainly driven by the effect of high wages on the propensity to introduce new technologies rather than vice versa. This view is supported by simultaneous models of the wage-technology relationship.     

Diffusion Of Microelectronics And Advanced Manufacturing Technology: A Review Of National Surveys

Applications of microelectronics in products and the use of advanced manufacturing technology in production are important factors driving innovation, productivity improvement and economic growth. Until the early 1980s there were few comprehensive national surveys of the diffusion of these technologies or of their impacts. This paper reviews surveys of firms using these technologies, discusses survey comparability and summarises key empirical results. The value of carefully constructed internationally comparable surveys for analysis and policy formulation is emphasised, and new directions for surveys are suggested.     

Technological Competence And Firm Economic Performance In Zimbabwe's Manufacturing Industry

Using data obtained from firm interviews, the paper attempts to relate, statistically, economic performance with technology. The firms interviewed belong to four industries: food and beverages (ISIC 31), textiles and clothing (ISIC 32), wood and furniture (ISIC 33), and metalworking (ISIC 34). An aggregate, synthetic, technology variable was built using data on three components: transfer of technology channels, manpower technical skills, and technological efforts. The transfer channels component comprised three sub-components: number of licensing contracts, number of technical assistance agreements, and number of expatriate technical personnel. The skills component also included three sub-components: number of engineers, number of scientists, and number of middle level technical personnel employed. The technical efforts component was formed by the addition of two normalized sub-components: R&D expenditures and number of uses made of technical support services. All these variables were measured at the individual firm level. The paper explores first the relationship between technology (as defined above) and two potential explanatory variables: size of firm and foreign ownership. In a second statistical exercise, the technology variable is incorporated, with traditional factors of production, in a production function. In the last statistical exercise, firm performance indicators were related to technology. Based on the availability of reliable data, the two performance indicators selected were: output per worker and whether the firm exported part of its output or not. The possible incidence of sectoral (industry) effects was also taken into account. It could be concluded that the sample data used shows a statistically significant, though not very strong, effect of the technology variable on both, output and output per worker, and a somewhat stronger association with whether Zimbabwe's manufacturing firms export or not.     

The Impact Of Technological Change On Employment: Evidence From A Firm-Level Survey Of Long Island Manufacturers

Recent studies of capital-skill complementarity suffer from several important empirical limitations and a theoretical framework that treats technological change as exogenous. This paper addresses some of these limitations using a new, detailed firm-level dataset on technology usage and labor composition. Based on two-stage estimation procedures, our results imply that technological change leads to a shift in labor composition and compensation in favor of white-collar workers.     

Research,Innovation And Productivi[Ty: An Econometric Analysis At The Firm Level

This paper studies the links between productivity, innovation and research at the firm level. We introduce three new features: (i) A structural model that explains productivity by innovation output, and innovation output by research investment: (ii) New data on French manufacturing firms, including the number of European patents and the percentage share of innovative sales, as well as firm-level demand pull and technology push indicators; (iii) Econometric methods which correct for selectivity and simultaneity biases and take into account the statistical features of the available data: only a small proportion of firms engage in research activities and/or apply for patents; productivity, innovation and research are endogenously determined; research investment and capital are truncated variables, patents are count data and innovative sales are interval data.

We find that using the more widespread methods, and the more usual data and model specification, may lead to sensibly different estimates. We find in particular that simultaneity tends to interact with selectivity, and that both sources of biases must be taken into account together. However our main results are consistent with many of the stylized facts of the empirical literature. The probability of engaging in research (R&D) for a firm increases with its size (number of employees), its market share and diversification, and with the demand pull and technology push indicators. The research effort (R&D capital intensity) of a firm engaged in research increases with the same variables, except for size (its research capital being strictly proportional to size). The firm innovation output, as measured by patent numbers or innovative sales, rises with its research effort and with the demand pull and technology indicators, either directly or indirectly through their effects on research. Finally, firm productivity correlates positively with a higher innovation output, even when controlling for the skill composition of labor as well as for physical capital intensity.     

The Timing of Technology Adoption by a Cost-minimizing Firm

Received December 7, 1999; revised version received July 26, 2001     

Innovation,Skilled Labour,Technology And Performance In Israeli Industrial Firms

A technology index based on R&D, skilled labour and capital vintage was developed and used to characterise industrial firms by technology level, facilitating the analysis of relationships between technology and economic performance at the firm level. The results show that technology-intensive firms are important players in industrial performance, accounting for a disproportionate share of total production. Compared to other kinds of firms, technology intensive firms are larger, more productive, offer higher average salaries, generate a higher value added and a highcr profit per employee and capital. They also tend to operate in more highly concentrated industries and are more involved in external trade. While down-sized as a group, high-tech firms show net job creation during the 11-year period surveyed.     

Technology Strategy And Product Diversity

This paper considers a three-stage game of a differentiated oligopoly: firms first make their entry decisions, then they choose production technologies and in the third stage of the game they decide product prices. The technology choice can be understood as selecting one from a pool of those recently available as well as developing a new technology through innovative activities. The resulting market equilibrium is then compared with the social optimum. The main conclusions are that a monopolistically competitive market will typically undersupply both product variety and production scale. R&D competition in a free entry differentiated oligopoly will lead to insufficient R&D investment at firm and industry levels.     

The Early Careers Of Engineers And The Accumulation Of Skills In The Canadian Economy

In this paper we use world cycling records to study the pattern of technological development of the track bicycle. We find that there is a strong evidence of ‘contagious’ effects among cycling records which in turn provides indirect evidence of ‘contagious’ effects among technological innovations. Interestingly, the ‘contagiousness’ of records is not a salient characteristic of track and field competitions where, arguably, technology plays a smaller role.     

Some Implications Of Endogenous Technological Change For Technology Policies In Developing Countries

Part I contrasts the general types of policy advice that follow from three different approaches to understanding economic growth and technological change. Neoclassical theory gives policy advice that is assumed to be relevant for all countries at all times: remove sources of ‘market failures’. Romer's branch of new macro growth theory stresses the nature of knowledge, non-rivalrous and partly appropriable. Structuralist-evolutionary theory is micro based and stresses the uncertainty that is associated with technological advance. Both of the latter approaches conclude that the neoclassical optimal allocation of resources is unachievable and hence the policy advice of removing impediments to achieving that optimum is not well grounded. As a result, policy advice for enhancing technological change must rely on a mixture of theory, empirical analysis and policy judgement. Part II deals with the large amount of context-specific policy advice that follows from structuralist-evolutionary theories.     

Technology Strategies For Economic Development In A Fast Changing Global Economy

East Asian development experience provides the basis for understanding which are the essential elements of effective technology strategy and policy, those that are required for the efficacious development of countries that have not yet embarked on a path of sustained modernization. Globalization has had a profound impact on development, enabling countries that could exploit its propelling forces to pursue a potent strategy of export-led economic and technological development. The policies needed to sustain this strategy are those required to foster institutions that permit effective commerce among economic agents, those necessary to generate the rapid accumulation of human and physical capital, and those essential to ensure that resources are allocated in accord with the economy's dynamic comparative advantage. Of crucial importance among the latter are effectively implemented policies of selective intervention designed to develop infant industries and to foster their fast-paced achievement of international competitiveness through rapid attainment of the requisite technological capabilities.     

The Dynamics Of Localized Technological Changes. The Interaction Between Factor Costs Inducement,Demand Pull And Schumpeterian Rivalry 1

Localized technological change is the endogenous outcome of the interplay between substitution costs. Switching costs and learning processes. New technologies are introduced when market pressures induce firms to change the levels of their inputs and their techniques. The dynamics ol localized technological change is the result us the interaction between three processes: it) the Schumpcterian competition process as analyzed by the replicator dynamics and failure inducement mechanisms. b) factor substitution stemming from changes in factors markets. and c) post-Keynesian demand pull pressures resulting from productivity growth. In such conditions out-of-equilibrium exchanges and localized technological changes drive a recursive process that is path-dependent in two senses, first it is highly sensitive to the initial conditions of the system. and second it is shaped by the interactions of agents.     

Innovation Dynamics And Endogenous Adjustment In The Telecommunications Industry

Patterned innovation dynamics - investment-mix shifts and inter-organizational alliances -are examined for their roles in facilitating accelelating technical advance in the telecom industry since the mid-1970s. While internal investment shifts favoring R&D and declining rates of capital recovery were ubiquitous across the period, this was especially so for telecom equipment suppliers. Comparative analyses suggest that such innovation investment strategies have been of less benefit to telecom firms than to producers in nearly any other major manufacturing sector. Trends in organizational innovation in the form of alliance fonnation are also reported. The challenges these innovation dynamics pose for neoclassical models are discussed.