Overview

This book addresses the sustained resurgence of American economy, and the firms, regions, and technologies that are driving this growth. Michael Best develops a new model of technology management and regional innovation based on the principle of systems integration. The principle of systems integration is manifest in the organizational capability of firms, individually and networked, to foster rapid technological change. Application of the principle of sysyems integration to business organization means integrating an ongoing technology management capability into a production system. The effect is a network or cluster of entrepreneurial firms in which design is decentralized within the enterprise and diffused amongst networked enterprises.It is a business model ideally suited to product-led strategies and technological innovation. The combination of entreprenurial firms and inter-firm networks is shown to foster a range of dynamic cluster processes which, in turn, underlie the growth of Silicon Valley and the unexpected resurgence of Boston's Route 128. The general character of the capabilities and innovation perspective is illustrated with applications to regions at different levels of industrial development. The implications for policy making are profound: technology management is a powerful lever for both fostering growth and shaping competitive advantage. Moreover, it offers a framework for addressing the challenge of ecologically sustainable growth. Complex product systems, such as energy, transportation, and health, are a consequence of past and present technology R&D choices and corresponding investements in technical education. Thus capability and skill development policies shape what is on offer in the marketplace.

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9780198297451

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Reviews

Sugden is on a mission: to take off his pedestal that haloed figure of normative economics, the welfare planner. It's not any planner's business to nudge you away from supposed psychological errors and restore some putative rationality to your choices. Sugden is a true pioneer in the analysis of both the positive and the normative dimensions of behavioural economics. His book, which weaves together arguments from economics, philosophy and psychology, is provocative, engaging, and tightly argued. It poses a fundamental challenge, from a liberal perspective, to behavioural welfare economics, and it is a must-read for all social scientists. -- Marco Mariotti, Queen Mary's University of London

Sugden is on a mission: to take off his pedestal that haloed figure of normative economics, the welfare planner. It's not any planner's business to nudge you away from supposed psychological errors and restore some putative rationality to your choices. Sugden is a true pioneer in the analysis of both the positive and the normative dimensions of behavioural economics. His book, which weaves together arguments from economics, philosophy and psychology, is provocative, engaging, and tightly argued. It poses a fundamental challenge, from a liberal perspective, to behavioural welfare economics, and it is a must-read for all social scientists. -- Marco Mariotti, Queen Mary's University of London

""Sugden is on a mission: to take off his pedestal that haloed figure of normative economics, the welfare planner. It's not any planner's business to nudge you away from supposed ""psychological errors"" and restore some putative rationality to your choices. Sugden is a true pioneer in the analysis of both the positive and the normative dimensions of behavioural economics. His book, which weaves together arguments from economics, philosophy and psychology, is provocative, engaging, and tightly argued. It poses a fundamental challenge, from a liberal perspective, to behavioural welfare economics, and it is a must-read for all social scientists."" -- Marco Mariotti, Queen Mary's University of London

Author Information

Michael Best is University Professor and Co-Director of the Center for Industrial Competitiveness at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. He was Arthur Andersen Visiting Distinguished Professor at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, Cambridge in 1999. Professor Best has also taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Sussex University; and Queen Mary College, London University. He is the author of The New Competition: Institutions of Industrial Restructuring (Polity Press and Harvard University Press, 1991) which has sold over 10,000 copies.

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