Technological development in industry: a business-economic survey & analysis

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Technological Development In Industry: A Business-Economic Survey & Analysis is a book written by business and academic researcher Lewis F. Abbott and published by Industrial Systems Research.[1]

The book covers major aspects of the technological development process in manufacturing firms and industries. It incorporates detailed case studies of the introduction and utilization of new technologies in a wide range of firms in engineering, construction, food and drugs, textiles, petrochemicals, and other industries. The main business-economic and other factors facilitating and hampering change are examined; and the impact of new technologies on jobs, firms, and industries is analysed.

The book also reviews the genesis of technical-product inventions and the nature and causes of technological development (innovation, change) in general. It contains a substantial amount of contemporary bibliographical material, and summarises the findings of key published research on the subject.

One of the first useful things that the book does is to define technological development (innovation, progress) in industry as a multi-faceted process of:

• introducing new tools and techniques for performing given tasks in production, distribution, data processing.(etc.);

• mechanizing the production process, or achieving a state of greater autonomy of technical production systems from human control, responsibility, or intervention;

• changing the nature and level of integration of technical production systems, or enhancing interdependence;

• developing, utilizing, and applying new scientific ideas, concepts, and information in production and other processes; and

• enhancing technical performance capabilities, or increasing the efficiency of tools, equipment, and techniques in performing given tasks.

Chapter one overviews general trends and issues and relates studies in this area to more general analyses of factors affecting business-economic growth and performance.

The book then looks at market-economic influences on new technologies and product innovations before turning to various aspects of the relationship between technological development, organization, and the plant-level growth and performance of individual industrial firms.

A series of case studies of technological development in firms in particular manufacturing industries is presented. Then the study looks at trade unions and their attitudes and relationship with technological development.

The latter part of the book is concerned with various wider societal aspects of the technological development process -- from the political-legal environment of technological change, through educational and training and labour recruitment aspects, to external financing.

The book as a whole adopts a comparatively sophisticated multi-disciplinary social scientific approach to the subject which seems to be a significant advance on the more narrow approaches found in many conventional economic etc. studies of technical change. The fact that much of the case material on the introduction and use of new technologies is actually based on in-depth interviews with the managers and others directly concerned provides an immediacy and depth of insight into the process not found in many other studies in this field.

Contents:

1. Technological Development In Industry: An Overview

2. The Economics Of Technological Development

3. Technological Development & Organization (1): General

4. Technological Development & Organization (2): Change Management, Job Satisfaction, & Productivity

5. Technological Development & Organization (3): Twenty-Five Company Case Studies

6. Trade Unions & Technological Development

7. The Political & Legal Environment

8. Education, Training, & Technological Development

9. Technological Development, The Labour Market, & Employment

10. Finance & Investment In New Technology

---

Technological Development In Industry: A Business-Economic Survey & Analysis

• Author: Lewis F. Abbott
• Country: United Kingdom
• Language: English
• Genre: Non-fiction
• Publisher: Industrial Systems Research
• Publication date: 2003
• Media type: Print (Binding: Hard spine with double-laminated flexi-covers)
• Pages: 120 2-column A4
• ISBN: 978-0-906321-29-4
• Edition: 2nd. Revised