Chapter 4

Technological Change:‘Gales of Creative Destruction’

Review• Concepts to Review

– Globalization– Global production networks (GPNs)

• Key Words– Technology, technological change,

Kondratiev long waves, information and communications technology, digital divides

Definition of Technological Change

• ‘A socially and institutionally embedded process’

• Process of change involves more than just technological change

• Four types of technological change:– Incremental innovations– Radical innovations– Changes of technology system– Changes in the techno-economic

paradigm

Kondratiev Long Waves

• Capitalism goes in cycles of prosperity, recession, depression and recovery

• Five stages of production, mapping on to Kondratiev waves: – manufacture, machinofacture, Taylorism,

Fordism and flexible production• The fifth Kondratiev long wave is

associated with information and communications technology

Transportation and CommunicationTechnolog

ies• Transportation technologies

– Commercial jet aircraft, and containerization: recent developments

– ‘Both the time and the relative cost of transporting materials, products and people have fallen dramatically as the result of technological innovations in the transportation media.’

• Communication technologies– Satellites and optical fibre cables: most significant

development– The Internet – Moving away from individual computer systems to networked

systems provided through the Internet (e.g. ‘cloud computing’)

• Electronic mass media

• Wireless communication

Social Impact of T&C Technologies

• Digital divides

• The product life cycle

• Current trends– Information intensity– Enhanced flexibility of production– Diversity of production systems– Increased specialization– Standardization of operations– Flexibility and modularity in production

processes