“Being There”: Proximity, Organization, and Culture in the Development and Adoption of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies

Abstract

Recent work on innovation and technology implementation suggests the importance of closeness between collaborating parties for the successful development and adoption of new technologies. "Closeness" is used here both in the literal sense, as allowing more frequent, effective, often unplanned interaction, and more broadly, to encompass common language, modes of communication, customs, conventions, and social norms. Such relationships are said to be particularly important in the case of production process innovations. These theoretical ideas are subjected to empirical scrutiny through a postal survey and set of interviews with users of advanced manufacturing technologies in Southern Ontario. Given the premise that intensive interaction and collaboration between users and producers of advanced process technologies is necessary for successful technology implementation to occur, then the chronically underdeveloped state of the Ontario advanced machinery sector ought to create major difficulties for manufacturers there trying to implement leading-edge processes. The analysis indicates that "closeness" between user and producer, defined physically, organizationally, and "culturally," is important for the successful implementation of these advanced technologies. The paper suggests a set of circumstances in which proximity of the user to the producer is most important. In doing so, it offers an interpretation of "culture" that goes beyond common language, codes of communication, and norms to incorporate shared workplace practices and training regimes. The paper concludes that industrial policies based on free trade in industrial machinery will be inadequate, on their own, to ensure that firms in mature regions make effective use of advanced process technologies.

Key words:

• user-producer interaction
• flexible machinery
• industrial networks
• training