In 1989, the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity produced the Made in America report. One of the recommendations of Made in America was to establish the Industrial Performance Center (IPC) to carry on the interdisciplinary investigations of industrial productivity, innovation, and competitiveness that the Commission had begun. Established in 1991, with the help of a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the IPC has brought together faculty and students from all five MIT Schools in research collaborations on industry. Since its inception, the faculty, students and affiliates of the IPC have produced numerous books, articles, papers and other publications that have advanced the understanding of strategic, technological, and organizational developments in a broad range of industries.
Working Paper | January 25, 2019
Globalization and Jobs in the Automotive Industry
As we enter the new millennium, globalization has emerged as one of the most salient and powerful forces shaping domestic and world economies. Accordingly, a debate has emerged in recent years over the causes and consequences of globalization.
Working Paper | January 25, 2019
Leveraging Capabilities: Models of Foreign Production in the Taiwanese Automotive Industry
“Going global” by establishing or expanding foreign production capabilities has long played an important strategic role for firms in the automotive industry.
Working Paper | January 24, 2019
Thinking about technology: understanding the role of cognition and technical change
Scholars of technical change have long been interested in understanding the ways in which new technologies shape and are shaped by firms and industries. Much attention has been focused on the three fundamental questions in the field – How do technologies evolve?
Working Paper | January 23, 2019
Institutions, Public Policy and the Product Life Cycle: Globalization of Biomanufacturing and Implications for Massachusetts
Biomanufacturing, specifically of large molecules, is one of the most complex types of manufacturing that exists. The challenge of scaling up living organisms combined with purifying their products to ensure safe administration to human beings creates a high risk process technically, financially, and from a public health perspective.
Book | January 22, 2019
Securing Prosperity, The American Labor Market: How It Has Changed and What to Do About It
We live in an age of economic paradox. The dynamism of America’s economy is astounding — the country’s industries are the most productive in the world and spin off new products and ideas at a bewildering pace. Yet Americans feel deeply uneasy about their economic future.
Book | January 22, 2019
Clockspeed: Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage
Charles Fine draws on a decade's worth of research at M.I.T.'s Sloan School of Management to introduce a new vocabulary for understanding the forces of competition and making strategic decisions that will determine the destiny of your company, as well as your industry.
Book | January 22, 2019
Forged Consensus: Science, Technology, and Economic Policy in the United States 1921-1953
In this thought-provoking book, David Hart challenges the creation myth of post — World War II federal science and technology policy.
Book | January 22, 2019
The Productive Edge: How U.S. Industries Are Pointing the Way to a New Era of Economic Growth
Analyzes the causes of the national decline in industrial productivity and discusses organizational and individual changes required to increase productivity
Book | January 22, 2019
The New Dollars and Dreams
Frank Levy's classic Dollars and Dreams offered an incisive analysis of the dramatic changes then taking place in the American standard of living. As wage stagnation and rising income inequality in the 1970s and early 80s began to undermine Americans' traditional economic optimism, Levy's book provided the first diagnosis of what he called the quiet depression.
Book | January 22, 2019
After Lean Production: Evolving Practices in the Auto Industry
In this book, industrial relations experts from eleven countries consider the state of the industry worldwide. They are particularly interested in assessing whether the loudly heralded model of lean production initiated by Toyota has become pervasive.
Book | January 22, 2019
Made by Hong Kong
Based on the results of a major year-long study, Made By Hong Kong analyzes the resources and handicaps of a significant set of Hong Kong industries as they attempt to utilize a diverse and strong set of new assets such as new technologies and a new proximity to China.
Book | January 22, 2019
National Diversity and Global Capitalism
The contributions to the volume present a challenge to conventional views on the extent and scope of globalization as well as to predictions of the imminent disappearance of the nation-state's leverage over the economy.