The Market and Beyond
Cooperation and Competition in Information Technology

This book examines the Japanese success in technology through their Innovation System, improving products and their foresight.

Martin Fransman (Author)

9780521435253, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 February 1993

352 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.496 kg

' . . . extremely well-researched . . . its greatest strength is that it tries to explain as well as describe . . . as an exercise in comparative industrial organisation [it] is something of a tour de force.' Journal of Information Technology

Many have described the Japanese competitive success in information technology; very few have explained it. This book advances our understanding by developing the concept of the Japanese Innovation System - an arrangement consisting of competing and cooperating private companies, government policy-makers and researchers, and universities. It will be of interest to all teachers, students and policy-makers interested in technological competition. An important part of the explanation of Japanese success relates to the ability to create innovations and to continually improve and update products and processes. This book shows that equally important has been the foresight of the Japanese in creating innovations for the distant future where problems of uncertainty are even more pronounced.

List of figures
List of tables
Preface
1. Introduction
2. A periodisation of the development of the computer and electronic devices industry in Japan, 1948–1979
3. The ULSI research project, 1976–80
4. The optical measurement and control system project, 1979–85
5. The high speed computing system for scientific and technological uses project (the supercomputer project), 1981–89
6. The future electronic devices project, 1981–1990
7. The fifth generation computer project, 1982–1991
8. Cooperation and competition in the Japanese computing and electronic devices industry: a quantitative analysis
9. Conclusions and theoretical implications
Appendices
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Microeconomics [KCC]