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.
Book | January 22, 2019
Made In America: Regaining the Productive Edge
Based on interviews with hundreds of workers, this vivid portrait not only identifies weaknesses and problems in management and productivity, but offers workable solutions for making American business work well again.
Working Paper | January 22, 2019
Brazil’s Role in the Biopharmaceutical Global Value Chain
Brazil’s biopharmaceutical market has experienced dramatic changes since 2000, with improvements in the performance of local firms, as well as an expansion in consumer demand and productive capacity, which have made the country the sixth largest market in the world.
Working Paper | January 22, 2019
The University as an Engine of Innovation: Critical Case Studies from Brazil and the U.S.
The university’s role now extends well beyond just research and education to more applied and translational work with industry as well as more entrepreneurial activities that support new venture formations among students and faculty.
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Exploring the Risks of Value Chain Modularity: Electronics Outsourcing During the Industry Cycle of 1992-2002
This paper focuses mainly on the issues of supply-base concentration and increased buyer-supplier lock-in through an examination of recent trends in what is perhaps the best case of value chain modularity, product-level electronics.
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Diffusion of Academic R&D Capabilities as an Industrial Innovation Policy? – The Development of Israel’s IT Industry
This paper focuses on the Israeli case and argues that unlike India and Ireland, Israel's competitive advantage in the IT industries, is in Research and Development (R&D).
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
The 2010 National Organizations Survey: Examining the Relationships Between Job Quality and the Domestic and International Sourcing of Business Functions by United States Organizations
This paper presents the results from the 2010 National Organizations Survey (NOS). The survey is representative of U.S. full-time jobs.
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Services Offshoring Working Group Final Report
Although the scale of services offshoring has likely been modest so far, it will inevitably grow and stimulate changes in the United States economy — both positive and negative — through the relocation of work and the internationalization of innovative activities.
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Direct Measurement of Global Value Chains: Collecting Product- and Firm-Level Statistics on Value Added and Business Function Outsourcing and Offshoring
Global value chains (GVCs) have changed the assumptions behind current data regimes and statistical systems are struggling to catch up. In this chapter, we confront the obvious. It will be exceedingly difficult to fill the data gaps caused by global economic integration without new data.
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
How Computerized Work and Globalization Shape Human Skill Demands
Our purpose in this paper is to outline these changes and their educational implications from an economist’s perspective. In sum, what education and skills are needed to earn a decent living in the labor market created by computers and globalization?
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Offshoring and Radiology
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Modular Production’s Impact on Japan’s Electronics Industry
This chapter examines the process of global integration through the lens of national industrial models – the collection of routines and strategies generally shared by corporate managers in a particular society.
Working Paper | August 30, 2018
Value Chains, Networks and Clusters: Reframing the Global Automotive Industry
In this article, we apply global value chain (GVC) analysis to recent trends in the global automotive industry, with special attention paid to the case of North America.