A Study of Innovation in Manufacturing: Determinants, Processes, and Methodological Issues. Executive Summary

摘要

The project involved an in-depth study of the adoption and diffusion of technological innovations in the footwear manufacturing industry. The research design included a panel study of a sample of footwear manufacturing firms complemented by several case studies of innovation decisionmaking in individual footwear firms. The research design also permitted analysis of certain methodological issues in innovation research, including the relative merits of retrospective and real-time methodologies. Thirteen innovations, representing various degrees of technological change, were utilized in the study. The innovations included examples of innovations based on the application of advanced computer-control technology to footwear production. The case studies of innovation decisionmaking provided in-depth knowledge of decision processes. (Copyright (c) Social Science Research Institute 1980.)