National Interests in an Age of Global Technology (1991) / Chapter Skim
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3. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE U.S. TECHNICAL ENTERPRISE
3. STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES OF THE U.S. TECHNICAL ENTERPRISE
Pages 54-70
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From page 54... ...
In this regard, a short list of the most important of U.S. national assets should include: a formidable basic research enterprise; a superior advanced technical education system; a vast, technologically demanding domestic market; a large, cosmopolitan, and highly skilled technical elite; and an educational system that fosters individual creativity and inventiveness.
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From page 55... ...
As Figures 3.1 and 3.2 show, by the late 1980s, the United States was still spending almost as much as Japan, West Germany, France, and the United Kingdom combined on research and development, and had nearly twice as many R&D scientists and engineers as its closest competitor, Japan. Similarly, comparisons of the leading industrialized nations' shares of world patents and scientific literature (Figures 3.3 and 3.4)
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From page 56... ...
......... 5 ~ t _ ~ ~ ~ United States Japan West Germany France United Kingdom FIGURE 3.3 National shares of patents granted in the United States, by country of residence of inventor and year of grant, all technologies: 1988.
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From page 57... ...
. Advanced Technical Education The superiority of advanced technical education in America is recognized throughout the world, as attested by persistently large enrollments of foreign students in doctoral level engineering and science programs in American universities.
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From page 58... ...
per capita consumption of technically advanced products such as televisions, VCRs, personal computers, facsimile machines, and cellular telephones also attest to the overall technical sophistication of the U.S. market.
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From page 59... ...
. This advantage may be partially offset, however, by the relatively easy exportability of software production capabilities to low-wage countries with an underutilized engineering work force.
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From page 60... ...
high school students continue to win international science and math competitions (Educational Testing Service, 1989~. Similarly, the best products of U.S.
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From page 61... ...
Clearly the United States is neither the first nor the only industrialized nation to face the challenge of rising global technological interdependence. Nonetheless, meeting this challenge is made all the more onerous for the United States by the relative decline in the ability of U.S.
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From page 62... ...
manufacturing at a relative disadvantage to their foreign competitors in industrywide efforts to develop new work force management techniques demanded by innovations in product and process technologies of the past few decades. Hence, many U.S.
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From page 63... ...
university engineering research and technical education are not sufficiently in touch with the needs of American industry.6 Fault for this mismatch must be equally apportioned between industry and universities for not working more effectively with each other to improve engineering curricula and to reorient the research agenda of university-based engineering departments more toward the concerns of the nation's commercial engineering enterprise. The heavy reliance of the U.S.
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From page 64... ...
Recent creative initiatives sponsored by a number of state and federal agencies, such as Pennsylvania's Ben Franklin Partnership Program and NSF's Engineering Research Centers, have also helped foster greater industry-university cooperation in engineering research (National Academy of Engineering, 1989; National Governors' Association, 1988; National Research Council, 1987, 1990; Pennsylvania Department of Commerce, 19881. Despite significant progress during the past five years, however, much remains to be done to exploit the full potential of university-industry partnerships in both research and technical education.
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From page 65... ...
Without a sustained effort to expand long-term investment in public infrastructure, plant modernization, and work force retraining, the 35 30 25 10 Percent United States Japan _ National Investment West Germany France United Kingdom Canada ~ Private Investment FIGURE 3.8 Gross fixed investment as a percentage of GNP, by selected countries: Average 1975-1987. SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (1989)
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From page 66... ...
Intra- and interfirm technical relationships are underdeveloped in the United States. Intense global competition and the shortening of product cycles have underlined the growing importance of combining the benefits of competition with the technological cross-fertilization, economies of innovation, and enhanced organizational learning that can result from cooperation among material and component suppliers, equipment vendors, and
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From page 67... ...
Even when the tracking of global technology and know-how is performed well by U.S. multinational corporations, they frequently fail to transfer the acquired technology, engineering practices, or managerial techniques to their own plants, supplier base, or downstream customers in the United States (Mansfield, 19881.
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From page 68... ...
argues that the abrupt drop in productivity growth in all the OECD countries after 1975, despite a continuing high level of R&D investment, could be attributed to the dramatic fall off in public infrastructure investment beginning in the mid-1970s. This suggests that public infrastructure is as important as the knowledge stock in stimulating productivity growth.
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From page 69... ...
Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Quarterly Review (13)
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From page 70... ...
1988. Ben Franklin Partnership: Challenge Grant Program for Technological Innovation-Five Year Report.
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