The Boundaries of Industrial Research: Making Transistors at RCA, 1948–1960

Abstract

As RCA made its initial foray into the field of solid-state electronics in the late 1940s, it deliberately broke down the boundary between the laboratory and the factory, showing extraordinary organizational flexibility in the early years of its transistor R&D program. By the end of the 1950s, however, RCA was utterly compartmentalized, as the laboratory moved into advanced research of cutting-edge devices and the operating divisions engaged in developmental work on automating the transistor assembly process. This article situates this transition within the context of the broader changes in the U.S. political economy. Political, economic, and technological factors—including postwar demobilization, rising military funding for industrial R&D, antitrust consent decrees, and rapid technical change—account for the rise and fall of organizational flexibility at RCA during the 1950s.