Competition for Technology Leadership: EU Policy for High Technology, by Johan Lembke. Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar, 2002. xiv + 313 pp. $100.00 cloth. ISBN 1-84064-792-2

摘要

This is an informative book about the making of industrial policies for high-technology industries in the European Union (EU) in the late 1990s. Lembke chooses three cases for detailed analysis: the GALILEO satellite navigation system, Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) wireless systems, and Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) digital radio. The author demonstrates that no industrial policies are likely to be forthcoming for industries, like digital radio, with low lobbying strength and low potential payoffs for political entrepreneurs (Table 8.5 on p. 280). In contrast, GALILEO satellite navigation benefited from the desire of industry representatives and political actors to have a European alternative to the American geographical positioning system (GPS), while UMTS benefited from the desire of Europeans to build on the success of the earlier Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) cellular phone systems without ruining their chances for marketing thirdgeneration phones in the rest of the world, particularly in Asia.