Does technological learning pay off? Inter-firm differences in technological capability-accumulation paths and operational performance improvement

Abstract

This paper focuses on the practical implications of technological capability-accumulation paths for inter-firm differences in operational performance improvement in the late-industrialising context. This relationship is examined over the lifetime of two large steel firms in Brazil: USIMINAS (1956–1997) and CSN (1938–1997). The study has found that the technological capability-accumulation paths followed by the two case-study companies were diverse and have each proceeded at differing ways and rates over time across different technological functions. The different ways and rates at which the two companies have improved their key operational performance indicators were strongly associated with their technological capability-accumulations paths. This paper suggests that the rate of operational performance improvement can be accelerated if deliberate and effective efforts to accumulate and sustain capabilities for different technological functions-through the underlying learning processes-are made within the firm. This paper also suggests that these efforts are likely to generate financial benefits for the firm.