Inter-firm Linkages and the Diffusion of Programmable Automation

提高美国制造商在成本和质量方面在世界市场上竞争的能力的一个关键因素是生产技术的现代化，即在制造商品和提供服务的过程中采用创新。这项研究考察了企业之间的技术和组织相互依赖关系，这对可编程自动化的传播非常重要，可编程自动化是一种广泛适用于许多制造业的工艺创新。研究的重点是三类经济组织之间的组织间联系：制造可编程机床的设备制造商和机床用户之间的联系；用户之间的联系；以及这些用户和他们的供应商客户公司之间的联系。这项研究的目标是：1)对组织之间的联系对可编程自动化的传播具有重要意义的性质和条件进行更丰富的理论理解，以及(2)对关于这些关系的假设进行实证检验。研究人员将利用1987年对制造工厂进行调查时收集的数据，以及1990年对这些工厂重新调查的结果。这项研究的发现可以扩展到更广泛的工艺创新，因为可编程自动化适用于广泛的行业。这些成果应有助于了解促进更迅速和更广泛地推广先进自动化技术所需的机制。

A key element in improving the capacity of U.S. manufacturers to compete in world markets on both cost and quality is the modernization of production technologies, that is, the adoption of innovations in the processes by which goods are made and services are delivered. This study examines the technical and organizational interdependencies among firms which are important to the diffusion of programmable automation, a process innovation with broad applicability to many manufacturing industries. The study focuses on the system of inter-organizational linkages among three classes of economic organizations: between equipment makers who manufacture programmable machines and machine tool users; among users; and between these users and the customer-firms to whom they are suppliers. The goals of the study are : 1) to develop a richer theoretical understanding of the nature of and the conditions under which ties between organizations are important to the diffusion of programmable automation, and (2) to empirically test hypotheses about these relationships. The researchers will draw on data collected in 1987 in a survey of manufacturing plants as well as results from a resurvey of these plants in 1990. The findings from this study could be extended to process innovations more generally, since programmable automation is applicable to a broad spectrum of industries. These results should contribute to an understanding of the mechanisms necessary to facilitate the more rapid and widespread diffusion of advanced automation technologies.