Technology and Industrial Development in Japan : Building Capabilities by Learning, Innovation, and Public Policy

Odagiri, Hiroyuki; Goto, Akira

ISBN 10: 0198288026 / ISBN 13: 9780198288022

Editore: Clarendon Press, 1996

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Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Technology and Industrial Development in Japan : Building Capabilities by Learning, Innovation, and Public Policy
• Editore: Clarendon Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1996
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0198288026
• ISBN 13: 9780198288022
• Rilegatura: Rilegato
• Condizione: New

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

Japan was the first major non-western nation to take on board the Western technological and organizational advances of the century after the fist industrial revolution. It subsequently proved fully able to exploit and contribute to the broad, sustained technological advances that began in the twentieth century, as science became harnessed to technology. Japan's economic development remains a model for many technologically less advanced countries which have not yet mastered modern technology to organizational forms; and a knowledge of Japanese technological and economic history can contribute importantly to our understanding of economic growth in the modern era.

This book studies the industrial development of Japan since the mid-nineteenth century, with particular emphasis on how the various industries built technological capabilities. The Japanese were extraordinarily creative in seraching out and learning to use modern technologies, and the authors investigate the emergence of entrepreneurs who began new and risky businesses, how the business organizations evolved to cope with changing technological conditions, and how the managers, engineers and workers acquired organizational and technological skills through technology importation, learning-by-doing, and their own R&D activities.

The book investigates the interaction between private entrepreneural activities and public policy, through a general examination of economic and industrial development, a study of the evolution of management systems, and six industrial case studies: textiles, iron and steel, electrical and communications equipment, automobiles, shipbuilding and aircraft, and pharmaceuticals. the authors show how the Japanese government has played an important supportive role in the continuing innovation, without being a substitute for aggressive business enterprise constantly venturing into unfamiliar terrains.

Recensione

A comprehensive history of technology and industrial development of Japan ... useful to those who are not familiar with Japanese industrial and technological development, and, among others, to those who cannot read the Japanese literature. Finally, it is worth mentioning that their English interpretation of Japanese names and facts are correct so that they can be trusted. (Business History)

A well researched and comprehensive text which will be of interest to teachers and researchers across a wide range of disciplines, including business economics, industrial management and technology policy. It would also be a worthwhile purchase for practitioners and those involved in formulating industrial strategies. (Asia Pacific Business Review)

Japan is sometimes considered to be a model of state-led development, but this historical account of Japanese technological development provides an impressive body of evidence to the contrary. The authors provide succinct and well-documented narrative case studies of technological development. - Marcus Rebick. The Economic Journal. July 1998.