Lokal förankring och global räckvidd : En studie av teknikutveckling i svensk maskinindustri : [a study of technological development in the Swedish machinery industry]

Sammanfattning: Taking its point of departure in the proliferating literature on the localised nature of learning and innovation processes, this thesis sets out to answer the question whether locally embedded firms are more innovative than other firms. The thesis is based on a questionnaire that in the autumn of 1995 was sent to firms producing machinery.The results show that most of the firms with predominantly customised products export as much as firms with primarily standardised products. This indicates that relations involving high transaction cost can be carried out despite the fact that the actors involved in the relations are located far from each other.In terms of technologically important relations, the domestic arena seems to be more important. Nearly four out of five firms may be classified as predominantly local/regional or national in their technological relations, or technology profile. This survey therefore supports the notion that there exist both local/regional and national innovation systems.Finally, however, despite the fact that most firms to a large extent are locally embedded in their technology relations, there is no evidence that such embeddedness is associated with superior firm performance, in terms of technology level or innovative capacity. Instead, firms with predominantly international technology relations generally have a higher technological level than technologically more localised firms.