AMT adoption and innovation: An investigation of dynamic and complementary effects

Jane Bourke and Stephen Roper

Technovation, 2016, vol. 55-56, 42-55

Abstract: The ability to innovate successfully is a key corporate capability, depending strongly on firms' access to knowledge capital: proprietary, tacit and embodied. Here, we focus on one specific source of knowledge – advanced manufacturing technologies or AMTs – and consider its impact on firms' innovation success. AMTs relate to a series of process innovations which enable firms to take advantage of numerical and digital technologies to optimise elements of a manufacturing process. Using panel data for Irish manufacturing plants we identify lengthy learning-by-using effects in terms of firms' ability to derive innovation benefits from AMT adoption. Disruption effects are evident in the short-term while positive innovation benefits occur six-plus years after adoption. Strong complementarities between simultaneously adopted AMTs suggest the value of disruptive rather than incremental AMT implementation strategies.

Keywords: O31; O33; O34; Advanced manufacturing technology; Innovation; Learning-by-using; Adoption; Disruptive strategy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:techno:v:55-56:y:2016:i::p:42-55

DOI: 10.1016/j.technovation.2016.05.003

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