Inter-firm Linkages and the Diffusion of Programmable Automation

提高美国制造商产能的一个关键因素 在世界市场上竞争的成本和质量是 生产技术的现代化，即 在商品生产过程中采用创新， 提供服务并交付。 本研究探讨的 企业间技术和组织的相互依赖 这对可编程的扩散很重要， 自动化，具有广泛适用性的工艺创新， 许多制造业。 研究的重点是 三个阶级之间的组织间联系系统 经济组织：设备制造商之间， 制造可编程机床和机床的用户; 在用户之间;以及在这些用户和客户公司之间 他们是谁的供应商 本研究的目的是：1） 对自然界有更丰富的理论理解 组织之间的联系以及在何种条件下 对可编程自动化的传播很重要， （2）对这些假设进行实证检验 关系。 研究人员将利用收集到的数据 1987年，在一项对制造工厂的调查中， 这是1990年对这些植物的重新调查的结果。 的 这项研究的结果可以扩展到处理 更普遍的创新，因为可编程自动化是 适用于广泛的行业。 这些结果 应有助于了解 以促进更迅速和更广泛的 推广先进的自动化技术。

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.