Organizational Innovation

Book excerpt: Published in 1998. In the past year the 300 largest global companies increased their research budgets by an average of 12 per cent. Governments now measure how technologically advanced they are as they worry about their trade balances and unemployment. Many public sector organizations, for example hospitals, universities and welfare agencies, are struggling to keep up with the rate of technological progress. The selections in this book provide a number of insights on how private firms can be more innovative and public sector organizations can keep up with rapid technological change. They emphasize both radical and incremental innovations and both product and process innovation. In particular the advanced manufacturing technologies so central to Piore and Sabel’s ’Second Industrial Divide’ receive a great deal of attention. Finally, the consequences of innovation are the focus of the last section.