High-technology Manufacturing Industries Research Articles

Decision making in creating the world's first smartphone

Subject area Entrepreneurship, Technology management and new product development. Study level/applicability This class is useable for an EMBA or MBA audience, especially for modules relating to entrepreneurship, technology management and new product development. Case overview Mr Khaw Kheng Joo was a pioneer in Singapore's high–technology manufacturing industry. In the mid–1990s, Khaw was given the difficult task of establishing a presence for Hewlett–Packard (HP) in the handheld Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) market. However, he believed that the PDA was not the game–changing technology for consumers. Using his knowledge of the Bell Curve and years of entrepreneurial experience, Khaw sought to combine PDA functionalities with the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) technology, effectively creating a new generation of mobile device fondly known today as the “smartphone”. The journey towards the finished product was met with several obstacles and barriers. Many colleagues were uncertain of the future market and had difficulty agreeing on which features to focus on. However, through his determination, expertise and decision making in uncertainty, Khaw guided his team to eventually launch the impressive HP Jornada 928, the world's first smartphone, and heralded a new generation of mobile devices. Expected learning outcomes This case is designed to be useable in teaching three key knowledge disciplines: Decision–making biases and heuristics in entrepreneurs and innovators. Technology diffusion of new technology. Managing market uncertainty. Supplementary materials Teaching notes.

Foreign Direct Investment in China Manufacturing Industry –Transformation from a Low Tech to High Tech Manufacturing

Since China opened its economy to foreign investment in 1979, it has become the second largest Foreign DirectInvestment (FDI) destination in the world after USA. Over the period 1997 to 2008, the manufacturing sector hasdominated China’s FDI inflow, however, when manufacturing activity is bifurcated into low and high technologyclasses, it becomes evident that China is in a transition stage moving from FDI in traditional low-tech activity toa high-tech manufacturing environment. This paper attempts to summarise and explain the key determinants ofFDI inflow across low and high technology manufacturing industry across three geographical regions of China.In the paper we empirically investigate the determinants of FDI high-low tech inflow by market size, labour cost,labour quality, and infrastructure. We also investigate the theoretical foundations for China’s transition from alow tech to a high tech manufacturing environment.

Empirical testing of Kotler's high-performance factors to increase sales growth

Purpose and/or objectives: The primary objective of this study is to empirically test Kotler's (2003) high-performance model which ensures an increase in sales growth. More specifically, the study explores the influence of process variables (as measured by marketing strategies), resources management (as measured by the management of labour, materials, machines, information technology and energy) and organisational variables (as measured by TQM and organisational culture) on sales growth in the food, motorcar and high-technology manufacturing industries. Problem investigated Various research studies suggest that the managers of firms are continuously challenged in their attempts to increase their sales (Morre, 2007; Pauwels, Silva Risso, Srinivasan & Hanssens, 2004: 142-143; Gray & Hayes, 2007: 1). Kotler (2003) suggests a model that leads to a high performing business. The question is posed as to whether this model can be used to increase sales growth in all businesses. This study seeks to develop a generic model to increase sales growth across industries by using an adapted version of Kotler's (2003) high-performance model. The study investigates the application of this adapted model on the food, motorcar and high-technology manufacturing industries. Design and/or methodology and/or approach: An empirical causal research design that includes 770 marketing and product development practitioners from multinational food, motorcar and high-technology manufacturing firms, was used in this study. A response rate of 76.1% was achieved as only 571 useable questionnaires were returned. The internal reliability and discriminant validity of the measuring instrument were assessed by the calculation of Cronbach alpha coefficients and the conducting an exploratory factor analysis respectively. Structural Equation Modelling SEM) was used to statistically test the relationships between the independent variables (marketing strategies, resource management, TQM and organisational culture) and the dependent variable (sales growth). Findings and/or implications: As the achievement of increased sales, profits and market share is important to all industries, companies spend large amounts of money on research and development to increase sales and market share. The study's empirical results lead to a proposed model that shows the factors influencing sales growth. These factors include distribution channel development, third-party agreements, e-business, e-savings and a market-oriented organisational culture.

Measuring business performance in the high-tech manufacturing industry: A case study of Taiwan's large-sized TFT-LCD panel companies

The nature of competition in the high-technology manufacturing industry has changed dramatically over the last two decades, and any of the traditional indicators of business performance are insufficient today. We have identified a new set of financial and non-financial performance indicators that can be used by high-tech manufacturing companies and have developed a business performance evaluation model. A data envelopment analysis (DEA), an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), and a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making approach are used in the model. Data from large-sized thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display panel companies in Taiwan were collected via a field survey and from various published databases and were fed into the model to determine the relative business performance of the companies. We hope that our findings will help high-tech manufacturing executives determine their companies’ strengths and weaknesses and lead to future improvements in business operations.

Spatial Convergence and Spillovers in American Invention

Endogenous growth theory places spatial knowledge spillovers at the center of national technological progress. Advances in spatial autocorrelation and regression analyses provide methods to assess the influence of these spillovers on the geographical distribution and growth of invention. This article investigates interstate inequality and convergence in per capita patenting in the United States in the period 1963–2003. We analyze both the complete forty years and trends in ten-year intervals. Moran's I reveals spatial dependence in patenting levels and growth, and LISA cluster maps identify regional groupings of leading and trailing states. Our regression results show that both regional effects and spatial spillovers influence convergence rates, which were low and steady in the thirty years before 1993. In the subsequent decade, patenting expansion concentrated in a few states, inequality increased, and divergence ensued. Western states, in general, and the Pacific Northwest, in particular, increasingly dominate patent growth. Rank order correlation analyses show that convergence before 1993 was driven by catch-up and not by leapfrogging. A final regression analysis shows that patent growth rates in the 1993–2003 interval were higher in more rural states and in those with high proportions of payrolls generated by high-technology manufacturing and producer services industries. States in the South significantly lagged. Our results support the hypothesis that creative skilled professionals seek to reside in states that offer both well-paying jobs in high-technology manufacturing and producer services sectors and easy access to rural outdoor recreation and leisure amenities.

Beyond Late Development: Taiwan's Upgrading Policies. By Alice Amsden and Wan-wen Chu. [Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2003. 207 pp. ISBN 0-262-01198-0.

Beyond Late Development offers economist Alice Amsden's most recent contribution (here with co-author Wan-wen Chu) to an already substantial body of work on East Asian political economy. Like her previous work, this book is important first because it trespasses the traditional boundaries of economics, seeking explanations to important developmental policy puzzles from institutional theories and empirical case studies more commonly the province of sociologists and area specialists; and second because it looks beyond Asia's mega-economies to the relatively smaller but still highly relevant late developers of Asia, offering important lessons for both students and practitioners of development policy.Amsden and Chu seek to explain the ability of advanced “latecomer” countries to sustain their global competitiveness in mature high-technology manufacturing and newly-liberalized service industries. They support their argument with previously unpublished data and extensive firm-level interviews from Taiwan, the most successful of these successful latecomers, which Amsden identified in an earlier book, The Rise of “The Rest”(Oxford University Press, 2001). Although Taiwan's leading national firms seldom make the Fortune 500 list, they dominate global market share for many mature, information technology (IT) manufactures. As of 1999, Taiwan produced 85 per cent of the world's scanners, nearly two-thirds of the world's keyboards, power supplies and monitors, and almost 40 per cent of all notebook computers.

The benefits of industrial clustering: Insights from the British financial services industry at three locations

Building on completed statistical research which indicates that the dynamics of industrial clustering in financial services are of similar magnitude to those found in high technology manufacturing industries, this paper reports findings from a study of clustering in the British financial services industry at three locations. Generic benefits of clustering are compared with the specific benefits found in financial services and different cluster types are delineated. The paper finds that access to specialised inputs and knowledge spillovers on the supply side and a clusters reputation and close proximity to sophisticated customers on the demand side are important benefits in financial services clusters. The paper also finds that performance differences between significant financial services clusters are due to differences in the make-up of a cluster and the processes that take place within it. No two clusters are alike and so it follows that clusters policy making should proceed on a case-by-case basis.

A Comparison of Clustering Dynamics in the British Broadcasting and Financial Services Industries

This paper compares patterns of industrial clustering in the British broadcasting and financial services industries. Recent trends of deregulation, rapid technological change, and globalization in both industries suggest the significant and increasing importance of clustering effects. This study examines the evidence. It investigates the effects of cluster strength on the growth of the firm and on rates of surviving entry. We find positive, large, and statistically significant clustering effects. In both industries: (a) incumbent firms located in a cluster that is strong in their own sub-sector of their industry tend to grow faster than average; and, (b) new firms are attracted by industry strength in certain sub-sectors in a particular region. The results for these largely mature service industries are very similar to those observed in earlier studies that have examined clustering patterns in newer high technology manufacturing industries.

The Dynamics of Industrial Clustering in British Financial Services

This study examines patterns of clustering in the British financial services industry. It studies the effects of cluster strength on the growth of the firm and on rates of surviving entry. We find positive, large, and statistically significant clustering effects in the British financial services industry, both in the growth model and the entry model. The results for this service industry are very similar to those observed in earlier studies which have examined clustering patterns in high technology manufacturing industries.

The determinants of business failures in the US low-technology and high-technology industries

This study investigates the determinants of business failure rates for low-technology and high-technology manufacturing industries across the forty-eight contiguous US states over the period 1984 to 1993. The main focus is on examining the role that some key state fiscal measures and federal transfer grants to states play in explaining business failure rates. It is found that regional variations in sales taxes, highway expenditures, bank loans, university R&D, patents, and outstanding debt play a statistically significant role in explaining variations in regional business failure rates. Interestingly, it is found that corporate development assistance programmes and small business loans tend to improve small business survival rates for hightechnology industries but they do not for low-technology industries. Findings also suggest that policymakers can effectively use local/regional policy instruments to bring the current business failure rates to the desired level more easily within hightechnology industry groups than within low-technology industry groups.

International Competitiveness: Labor Productivity Leadership and Convergence Among 14 OECD Countries

From 1970 through 1991, the United States led other OECD countries in overall labor productivity, a key measure of national competitiveness. During this period, labor productivity in these countries converged, both towards the mean OECD labor productivity and the U.S. level of labor productivity. This suggests living standards among the OECD countries are becoming more alike. In the latter half of the period, the rate of convergence slowed. The industrial components of aggregate labor productivity offer insight into the causes of this convergence slowdown. Although most industry groups continued to converge between 1982 and 1991, two key industry groups--1) Manufacturing, and 2) Finance, insurance and real estate and business services--did not. Growth in Japanese labor productivity created the divergence in Finance, insurance and real estate and business services. Strong manufacturing labor productivity growth in United States high-technology industries was a primary cause of the divergence in Manufacturing. In 1991, the United States was among the labor productivity leaders in almost all manufacturing industries. It was, however, no longer the unequivocal labor productivity leader in these industries. Other countries had overtaken U.S. labor productivity in three of the nine industries and retained the lead in three other industries. Japan, for example, had a dominant lead in Chemicals and chemical petroleum, coal, rubber and plastic products. The United States, however, held a considerable lead in Fabricated metal products, machinery and equipment, which includes most key high-technology manufacturing industries. The slowdown of OECD labor productivity convergence toward the U.S. level since 1982 is a sign of continued U.S. competitiveness. The results of this analysis of selected OECD countries at the aggregate and industry levels suggest that the pundits of the 1980s were too quick to point to the demise of the U.S. competitiveness. These results show that although the United States? overall labor productivity lead is not as overwhelming as it once was, the United States continues to lead in overall labor productivity and in labor productivity in many important individual industries. This is not to say that there are no reasons to watch U.S. labor productivity measures closely and explore the roots of labor productivity changes. The situation is, however, much more complicated and not necessarily as dire as some analysts suggested during the 1980s.

Using R&D cooperative arrangements to leverage managerial experience: A study of technology-intensive new ventures

During the past decade, increasing attention has been given to the widespread use of research and development (R&D) strategic alliances and cooperative interorganizational relationships. This research has addressed a variety of inter-firm relationships ranging from joint ventures to informal networking. However, most of this literature is based on research involving large established firms. More recently, researchers have recognized that small firms or new ventures are also adopting cooperative R&D strategies with increasing frequency. A variety of reasons for the increasing use of R&D cooperative arrangements in new ventures has been offered, including the need to complement a new venture's existing internal resources, the need to quickly gain the technical capabilities to compete in rapidly changing markets, and the desire to minimize the fixed costs associated with acquiring capital assets. This paper reports the results of a study of new high-technology ventures that examined the relationship between performance, the experience of a venture's management team, and its use of R&D cooperative arrangements. The central proposition of this research was that the effectiveness of R&D cooperative activities is associated with the level of combined expertise possessed by the new venture's management team. Specifically, it was anticipated that new ventures with management teams possessing more experience with the industry and/or with similar technologies would be better able to successfully engage in R&D cooperative activities. The primary data analysis technique was moderated regression. The data was collected from Security and Exchange Commission initial public offering registration statements and other archival documents filed by 210 new ventures in three high-technology manufacturing industries. The results of the regression analysis revealed that sales growth was associated with the use of R&D cooperative arrangements. More important, the results also indicated that this relationship was positive when the new venture's management team was relatively more familiar with the industry, markets, and/or with similar technologies. In other words, our results indicate that the relatively more experienced managers were more proficient at using R&D cooperative activities to strategically position their respective firms vis-à-vis their less experienced counterparts. Evidently, these managers were better able to identify the risks and benefits of engaging in such cooperative activities. Additionally, we provide preliminary evidence that the greater knowledge possessed by the management teams may have allowed the new ventures to reduce the costs associated with R&D market transactions. These findings are important because they suggest that prior managerial experience in similar industries and/or with similar technologies is an important prerequisite for the successful use of R&D cooperative arrangements by new high-technology ventures. Management's knowledge of customer needs, product characteristics, and/or the specific idiosyncracies of the industry and/or technology seems to significantly enhance a new technology-intensive venture's ability to effectively engage in R&D cooperative activities.

Innovation, the multinational corporation: Some implications for national science policy

In recent years the role of research and development has been examined with great interest to determine its causal relation to economic growth. Emerging from a number of studies is a realization that the process of innovation is the key variable. Innovation refers to that complex chain of events and processes which stretches from the conception of a new idea (often in an R & D lab) through to the acceptance in the market place of a new or improved good or service. This article sets out to examine the impact on the innovative potential of the corporate structure of a country when multinational corporations are active in such a country. In particular, the emphasis is on high technology manufacturing industries. The host country most often referred to will be Canada.