Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Alcorta, Ludovico
Author-Email:
Author-Workplace-Name: United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies
Title: New Technologies, Scale and Scope, and Location of Production in Developing Countries
Abstract: The paper presents the preliminary results of an international research project
	 undertaken in Brazil, India, Mexico, Turkey, Thailand and Venezuela on whether and
	 to what extent flexible automation and associated organizational techniques have
	 diffused to developing countries, and what their impact has been on product, plant
	 and firm scale and scope. It shows that while diffusion has been rapid in the
	 countries under study, particularly in the case of computer-numerically-controlled
	 (CNC) machine tools, it was far slower than in developed countries. Diffusion of
	 new organizational techniques was also slow.
	 The paper analyses the data on product scale, and concludes that NT do not
	 necessarily lead to reductions in product scale, product variety or scope. On the
	 contrary, the data show significant increases in variety and availability of sizes
	 of the products on offer, not because of new products, but due to vertical
	 integration in the production of components. The paper concludes that the output or
	 capacity of most firms surveyed increased as a result of the adoption of NT, due to
	 reduction in waiting times, better factory and labor organization, increased
	 efficiency of CNC machine tools and higher capital and marketing 'fixed' costs.
	 Such findings imply that scale will continue to be an impediment to entry into
	 industrial production by small developing country firms.
Keywords: Diffusion of Innovations, New Technology,  Location of Industry, Developing Countries
Series: Discussion Paper
Creation-Date: 1995
Number: 1995-02
File-URL: https://www.merit.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/9502.pdf
File-Format:application/pdf
File-Size: 129 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:199502