Technology, Organisation and Export-driven Research and Development in Austria’s Electronics Industry

L. Suarez-Villa

Chapter 3 in Innovation, Networks, and Knowledge Spillovers, 2006, pp 33-71 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Over the past two decades Austria’s export-driven electronics industry has experienced a progressive territorial distribution that has substantially decentralised production and employment. Nevertheless, the capital region’s concentration has provided many advantages to R&D-intensive establishments through subcontractual opportunities and better access to advanced research and production skills. This paper analyses the relationship between R&D, territorial location and the most important organisational characteristics in Austria’s electronics industries. An assessment of operational motivations, based on establishment-level survey data, is followed by a factor analysis that reveals the main organisational dimensions. Statistical analyses of the association between R&D intensity, territorial location and the organisational factors are then expanded to consider subcontracting and just-in-time production methods. Two-way subcontracting, whereby firms both subcontract part of their production out and are in turn contracted by others, is found to be prevalent. Such arrangements are thought to help firms specialise and avoid implementing costly production techniques whilst helping save capital and resources that can be reinvested in R&D. These analyses provide important insights on the association between R&D and subcontracting, just-in-time production and on the advantages of skilled production labour and plant size for research-intensive manufacturing establishments.

Keywords: Labour Skill; Capital Region; Market Niche; Spatial Division; High Labour Skill (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-540-35981-4_3

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783540359814

DOI: 10.1007/3-540-35981-8_3

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().