The Sources of Industrial Leadership
Richard R. Nelson · 2000
Abstract The heart of this essay is a report on a large research project, just recently completed, which studied how seven major high-tech industries evolved in the USA, Japan, and Western Europe: machine tools, organic chemical products, pharmaceuticals, medical diagnostic equipment, computers, semiconductors, and software.1 The history of each of these industries is intimately intertwined with technological advance. In several cases, the birth of the industry was associated with the opening of a major new technology. Technological advance has been rapid in all of them, and competition has involved innovation in a central way.