The Institutional Context and Manufacturing Performance: The Case of the U.S. Defense Industrial Network

U.S. manufacturing firms that make sophisticated weapons systems for the Pentagon are subject to an unusual regulatory regime that obligates them to volunteer' information on their business practices to the government and to prime contractors as a condition of their special relationship with the government. Within this organizational community information sharing with and assistance to other firms have come to be viewed as an ordinary obligation - i.e., a condition of citizenship. This cooperative learning environment is indicative of a collaborative manufacturing network that enables member organizations to learn quickly about relevant process technology innovations and to implement them effectively. We find that defense contractors learn about information technology applications more quickly than enterprises outside the network. Moreover, learning advantages are not confined to transactions specific to the Pentagon, but benefit the non-military operations of the networked enterprises as well.

Productivity and Information Technology: The Elusive Connection

This study analyzes the effect of information technology on the efficiency of production operations in a specific manufacturing process. Survey data from 584 establishments engaged in the machining process in 21 different industries are used to construct and test an empirical model that takes into account product characteristics, the type of technology (computer-programmable automation or conventionally controlled) machines, the extent of technological change at the plant, process-specific characteristics such as the scale of operations and degree of customization, labor policies, and structural features of the organization of work. The results indicate that there is a significant efficiency advantage from using programmable automation technology and that technological advantages accumulate with experience and with the repeated opportunities for learning associated with large volume and frequent product changes. The most efficient use of this technology occurs in plants with work practices that involve a higher ratio of machines to workers (as in a cellular approach to manufacturing) and allow production workers to perform programming tasks to a greater degree. Unionized plants are also significantly more efficient than non-union plants.productivity, manufacturing performance, production efficiency, technological change, programmable automation, organization of work

From Mission to Commercial Orientation: Perils and Possibilities for Federal Industrial Technology Policy

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How States Augment the Capabilities of Technology-Pioneering Firms

State governments offer a variety of programs to assist technology intensive entrepreneurial firms yet there is a limited understanding of how firms use these programs. This paper provides a framework for categorizing state technology programs and uses detailed case studies to examine how these programs augment firms' capabilities. It is concluded that firms made extensive use of state programs that provide access to university intellectual property and research facilities. In addition, firms participated in programs that provided incentives for faculty to conduct joint research with industry. Finally, state venture capital programs, though small relative to federal R&D grants or venture capital, appear to nurture firms' development. Copyright 2000 Gatton College of Business and Economics, University of Kentucky.

Information Technology, Organizational Capabilities and Context: How do regional economies and institutions matter to the spread of innovation?

Resource dependency and institutional theories of organizational structure and economic geography are employed to explain the spread of information technology applications in manufacturing processes. We consider a number of avenues through which institutions affect the spread of three different information technology applications. We find that an ownership change is itself an institutional mechanism that disrupts routines in the acquired enterprise and serves to legitimate the adoption of new technologies. Institutional linkages employed by enterprises for purposive search and active learning promote the diffusion of knowledge about the kinds of adaptations in standard practices necessary to exploit new technologies. Only the influences from the local economy in spreading innovation - especially from regional specialization – indicate an institutionalizing process of change that reflects mimetic isomorphism whereby late adopters conform to the growing dominance of specific information technologies within more specialized regions