External Learning Opportunities and the Diffusion of Process Innovations to Small Firms: The Case of Programmable Automation

Kelley, M.R. & Brooks, H. (1991). External Learning Opportunities and the Diffusion of Process Innovations to Small Firms: The Case of Programmable Automation. In: Diffusion of Technologies and Social Behavior. Eds. Nakicenovic, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7176-4604 & ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7814-4990Grubler, A., pp. 341-381 Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: Springer. ISBN 978-3-662-02702-8 10.1007/978-3-662-02700-4_14.

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Abstract

In this chapter, we are concerned with explaining which types of firms have failed to adopt well-known improvements in process technology. This problem has, of course, been the underlying concern of all studies of diffusion “to rationalize why, if a new technology is superior, it is not taken up by all potential adopters” (Stoneman, 1983). Drawing on various theoretical perspectives, we identify a number of different barriers to adoption. With data collected from a 1987 nationally representative sample of US establishments in 21 metal-working and machinery manufacturing industries, we then construct a multivariate logistic regression model to empirically test for the effects of these factors on the likelihood of adoption of a particular process innovation, namely programmable automation (PA) machine tools.

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