Such districts operate as coalitions of competitors, interdependent yet united by a common goal. This pattern encourages the diffusion of technology through all firms in the district. This is in marked contrast to experience elsewhere when competing firms tend to keep technological advances closely. Mature sectors that undergo such technological renewal and then strive continually to keep abreast of technological developments and market trends can retain competitiveness even in the face of increasing international competition.
This pattern is one of the elements suggesting that long-established concepts of comparative advantage and ensuing international division of labor must be challenged. But the emerging technologies are not the exclusive domain of advanced countries, and their intelligent application in developing countries may speed up their economic growth and open possibilities for decentralized patterns of development. Until recently in the advanced countries, the main technological innovations in production have involved mass production and standardization.
The emerging technologies make it possible to give an effective answer to the demand for diversification, product customization, and personalization. Thus, the structure of supply is becoming more flexible and innovative. In other words, it is now possible to combine small-scale production units with high productivity and high quality efficiently at increasingly accessible prices.
We may therefore say that small becomes beautiful again, although not in the sense that E. Schumacher used this phrase in the early s. The pace of innovation is extremely rapid. No individual firm or country can hope to gain or retain technological and market superiority in any given area for long. The pressure of competition and the rapid spread of production capabilities, innovative ideas, and new patterns of demand compel companies to measure themselves against rival firms at home and abroad early in the production cycle, and then rapidly exploit, in the widest possible market, any competitive advantages that arise from a lead in innovation.
We are witnessing a compression of the time scale by which new technology is introduced, with ever-shorter intervals between discovery and application.
This compression is especially apparent in microelectronics and the information technologies, sectors in which international competition and academic and industrial research activities are intense. This phenomenon is widely visible though not universal. In some sectors specifically, though not exclusively, those involving the life sciences longer periods are imposed by the need for testing to satisfy regulatory criteria.
Examples here come from the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. Simultaneously, firms acquire more strategic space in which to operate. In the past, the smaller the firm, the narrower its natural geographic horizon.
Today it is possible for both large and small firms to think in global terms. This new perspective implies the need for all interests, large and small, to seek arrangements such as transnational mergers, joint venture agreements, consortia, and shared production and licensing agreements with other companies.
The partners often bring complementary assets: investment capital, market shares in different geographic areas, technological capabilities in adjacent domains, and different strategic approaches to advance innovation. In this way returns in different countries can be maximized rapidly. This worldwide change is being spearheaded by the industrial democracies—the countries that possess major resources in science and technology, innovative capability, and investment capital.
Not only is it created and developed on scientific bases, but it also generates fundamental scientific knowledge. The discovery of new superconducting materials, for example, is simultaneously a great scientific achievement that implies fundamental advances in our understanding of the behavior of matter in the solid state and a technological invention that is immediately open to extraordinary applications in many fields, from energy transmission to computers and from high-field magnets to nuclear fusion.
The development of artificial intelligence is another example of the increasingly scientific nature of technology; this effort requires the cooperation of the most disparate disciplines and in turn holds the potential for application in a wide variety of fields. These examples illustrate how the narrow, specialized, compartmentalized ways in which problems typically were approached in the past are giving way to a more global approach that breaks down the barriers of single disciplines to obtain a unified, cross-disciplinary vision.
Another unique aspect of the present technological revolution is that it brings about a dematerialization of society. In a sense, dematerialization is the logical outcome of an advanced economy in which material needs are substantially saturated.
Throughout history there has been a direct correlation between increases in gross domestic product and consumption of raw materials and energy. This is no longer automatically the case. According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, the amount of industrial raw materials needed for one unit of industrial production is now no more than two-fifths of what it was in , and this decline is accelerating. Thus, Japan, for example, in consumed only 60 percent of the raw materials required for the same volume of industrial output in The reason for this phenomenon is basically twofold.
Increases in consumption tend to be concentrated on goods that have a high degree of value added, goods that contain a great deal of technology and design rather than. For example, it is now possible to invent new energy sources that have energy densities far exceeding those of raw materials. One kilogram of uranium can produce the same amount of energy as 13 U.
Decoupling of the amount of raw material needed for a given unit of economic output, income generation, and consumption of raw materials and energy is an essential element in the dematerialization process.
But present trends go beyond this. World society is becoming more open; interdependence is increasing. This is part of what is increasingly being termed the globalization of business and finance. The comparison between the various forms of trade and transactions is, however, a matter of concern.
It might be an indication that conditions for profit increasingly are more favorable in financial speculation than in capital investment in a world that still greatly needs economic growth and opportunities for employment.
The alarming indebtedness of developing countries and the massive transfer of resources to advanced economies in interest payments are another facet of this problem. But globalization affects all sectors of the economy. As noted earlier, the present wave of innovation, technological and otherwise, is spearheaded by the industrial democracies: the countries of North America, Western Europe, and Japan.
In this context, protectionism and defensive attitudes are losing bets. It is not by chance that even a superpower—the USSR—that had built barriers around itself and was striving to compete and advance by planning its economy in isolation is now being forced to come to terms with this new reality.
In considering the triad, it is important to note that each of its three cornerstones faces problems. The United States retains its lead in the creation and development of the more important emergent technologies, and signs are that it will continue to do so for some time.
But the size of the federal budget deficit and the size of the trade deficit, as well as the process of deindustrialization in many traditional sectors that were once the powerhouse of the U.
Japan is exceptionally good at exploiting the new technologies and creating large-scale applications for diverse markets. The truth of the matter is most technologies do not. However, occasionally a new technology does appear which provides the grounding for gradual changes that eventually transform our systems of production and the way we live our lives. Historically, we speak of these developments as technological revolutions. Keywords: technological revolution , technology , technological change , system of production , occupational structure , artificial intelligence.
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To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us. All Rights Reserved. OSO version 0. University Press Scholarship Online. Large enterprises began to concentrate in rapidly growing industrial cities. The substitute fuel eventually proved highly beneficial for iron production. Experimentation led to some other advances in metallurgical methods during the 18 th century.
Wrought iron is more malleable than cast iron and therefore more suitable for fabricating machinery and other heavy industrial applications. Those are the years historians commonly use to bracket the Industrial Revolution. In this period, the organization of cotton production shifted from a small-scale cottage industry, in which rural families performed spinning and weaving tasks in their homes, to a large, mechanized, factory-based industry. The boom in productivity began with a few technical devices, including the spinning jenny, spinning mule, and power loom.
First human, then water, and finally steam power were applied to operate power looms, carding machines, and other specialized equipment. Another well-known innovation was the cotton gin, invented in the United States in This device spurred an increase in cotton cultivation and export from U.
Chemicals This industry arose partly in response to the demand for improved bleaching solutions for cotton and other manufactured textiles. Other chemical research was motivated by the quest for artificial dyes, explosives, solvents, fertilizers, and medicines, including pharmaceuticals.
Transportation Concurrent with the increased output of agricultural produce and manufactured goods arose the need for more efficient means of delivering these products to market. The first efforts toward this end in Europe involved constructing improved overland roads. Canals were dug in both Europe and North America to create maritime corridors between existing waterways. Steam engines were recognized as useful in locomotion, resulting in the emergence of the steamboat in the early 19 th century.
High-pressure steam engines also powered railroad locomotives, which operated in Britain after Railways spread rapidly across Europe and North America, extending to Asia in the latter half of the 19 th century. The audio, illustrations, photos, and videos are credited beneath the media asset, except for promotional images, which generally link to another page that contains the media credit.
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