Innovativeness in Times of Crisis: How West German Manufacturers of Consumer Goods Dealt with the Structural Crisis of the 1970s - A Comparison of Successful and Failed Industries and Businesses

该研究项目在两个子项目的基础上，研究公司和行业如何成功地应对结构性危机或未能这样做。提出的问题是，如何识别，解释和管理危机，或在什么条件下，这只是失败。重点是特别是创新或创新不足，这将在经济和历史创新研究之间的跨学科合作的基础上进行审查。因此，这两个学科都受益于概念/理论（即。a.基于资源的企业观，产业生命周期概念与行为者结构方法，创新风格和创新文化）和方法（即，a.本研究的重点是20世纪70年代，由于技术进步（微电子）和竞争的国际化（日本进入全球市场），西方工业国家陷入了复杂的结构危机。西德工业以不同程度的成功应对了这场危机。虽然资本货物和高价值消费品制造商从危机中整体上得到了加强，但这仅部分适用于消费品制造商。因此，例如，消费电子业务（棕色商品）未能在中期内适应变化的框架条件。不过，家用电器（白色商品）制造商至少在一定程度上很好地驾驭了这场危机。鉴于这些差异，该研究项目提出了一个关键问题，即如何解释这种不同的危机控制能力。G.该研究项目将一方面侧重于洗衣机制造商（项目部分Burr），另一方面侧重于磁带机和影碟机制造商（项目部分Bauer），将以两个相互密切相关的行业和商业案例研究的形式进行研究。这两个生产商集团都提供消费品和复杂的多技术产品这一研究项目对科学的益处体现在学科间的交叉交流以及对一个尚未探索的问题的处理上（对危机的认识、危机时期创新的成功与否、结构性危机中公司的成败）。该研究项目与当前的商业实践直接相关。技术影响历史主席和一般工商管理主席之间的合作，特别是创新和服务管理，旨在长期合作。它打算提出申请，将第二个供资期从2020年延长到2023年。

The research project examines on the basis of two subprojects, how companies and industries successfully master a structural crisis or fail to do so. The question is raised, how crises are identified, interpreted and managed or under which conditions this just fails.The focus is particularly on innovativeness or insufficient innovativeness, which will be examined on the basis of an interdisciplinary collaboration between economic and historical innovation research. Both disciplines thereby benefit from the concepts/theories (i. a. resource based view of the firm, industry lifecycle concepts versus actor structure approach, innovation styles and innovation cultures) and methods (i. a. industry analyses, business case studies versus historical-critical method, scientific working with archives) of the other.The research focuses in particular on the complex structural crisis by which Western industrial countries were seized in the 1970s due to technological progress (microelectronics) and internationalization of competition (Japan`s entry to the global market). The West German industry tackled this crisis with varying success. While manufacturers of capital goods and high value consumer goods emerged strengthened from the crisis as a whole, this applies only in part for manufacturers of consumer goods. Hence, the consumer electronics business (brown goods), for example, did not manage to adapt to changed framework conditions in the medium term. However, manufacturers of household appliances (white goods) have, at least in part, mastered the crisis very well. In view of these differences, the research project raises the key question how this varying ability to master the crisis can be explained, e. g. with the companies` different innovation capabilities.The research project will focus on manufacturers of washing machines on the one hand (project part Burr) and on manufacturers of tape decks and picture disc players on the other hand (project part Bauer), which will be examined in the form of two industry and business case studies closely connected to each other. Both producer groups offered consumer goods and complex multi technology products (mechanical systems, electronics, and propulsion technology), which were likely to be in a similar price category.The benefit of this research project for science is to be seen in the outlined cross-fertilization of the disciplines as well as in the processing of a still underexplored question (perception of the crisis, successful or insufficient innovativeness in times of crisis, success or failure of companies in structural crises). The research project is immediately relevant to the current business practice.The cooperation between the Chair for the History of the Impact of Technology and the Chair of General Business Administration, especially Innovation and Service Management is designed for the long haul. It is intended to file an application for extension for a second funding period from 2020 to 2023.