Competition-Through-Innovation: The Third Industrial Stage

Abstract

This presentation describes a three-stage historical model developed as apart of a Ph.D. dissertation analyzing competition between US and Japanese companies in electronics-related industries. The model is similar to that described by Piore and Sabel in The Second Industrial Divide, but companies under the third stage do not succeed by reacting quickly to exogenous technological change but by repeatedly leap frogging their competitors through product and process innovation. This shifts the focus from the mechanical production process to the collaborative innovation process, which requires social systems to support collective learning.