The Advanced Materials Revolution E-Book

Sanford L. Moskowitz

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 520

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2014

Beschreibung

A comprehensive treatment of the economic and global impacts of the advanced materials industry This book represents the first comprehensive investigation of the emerging international advanced materials industry and its profound impact on the world's industrialized and newly emerging economies. It examines the ways in which science, technology, business, and markets have converged to produce one of the most dynamic industries in recent years--one that is increasingly controlling global technological progress as a whole. From the unique vantage point of this crucial industry, this book illuminates the major differences in how the world's two economic superpowers--the United States and the European Union--perceive and carry forward the technology creation process and what these differences mean for achieving national and regional competitive advantage in the twenty-first century. It draws upon a rich body of source materials spanning from 1970 through 2007 as well as actual in-depth interviews and internal corporate and governmental documentation. The book is organized thematically, with each section highlighting critical perspectives on the rise of the international advanced materials industry and its impact on the relative competitiveness of the United States and the European Union. It concludes with a discussion of how what we have learned about advanced materials in the West tells us of the future competitive power of an emerging Asia. The Advanced Materials Revolution is essential reading for researchers, executives, and managers working in the advanced materials and related technological fields, as well as professionals and scholars in the academic, investment, consulting, and government communities. It also serves as a valuable case study textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in business, management, entrepreneurship, technology studies, chemical and materials engineering, economics, economic history, and regional and economic development.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

Half Title page

Title page

Copyright page

Dedication

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part One: Advanced Materials, Past and Present

References

Chapter 1: The Coming of the Advanced-Materials Revolution

Continuity and New Directions: 1980s and 1990s

The New Materials and the Rise of the “Technological” Society

References

Part Two: Opportunities and Risks

Chapter 2: A Great Potential—Markets and Society

The Advanced-Material Families: Characteristics, Technology, and Applications

Global Markets: The Question of Convergence

References

Chapter 3: The Great Divide: Advanced Materials, Productivity, and Economic Growth in the United States and Europe

Technology and Economic Performance I–it, Energy, and Biomedical

Technology and Economic Performance. II–the Role of Advanced Materials [11]

Localization, Globalization, and the Competitiveness Factor: European Union Versus United States

References

Chapter 4: Facing Reality: The Risk Factor in Advanced-Materials Technology

The Risks of Innovation

The Market Dilemma: Can We Sell This?

References

Part Three: Creation: Research and Development

Chapter 5: Research and Development I: The American Context

Opportunities Taken and Opportunities Missed: Case Studies

The United States, R&D, and Advanced Materials

References

Chapter 6: Research and Development II: The European Context

The European Dilemma in R&D I: Funding Problems

The European Dilemma in R&D II: Structural Problems

The European Dilemma in R&D III: The “Cultural” Problem

Discussion

References

Part Four: A Wider Context: The Seamless Web

Chapter 7: Seamless Web I: Companies (Large and Small), Universities, and Incubators

The Corporation: Captive Markets and the Large Integrated Firm

The Rise of the Small Start-Up Firm in Advanced Materials

Universities, SMEs, and Incubators

References

Chapter 8: The Seamless Web II: Signaling, Selection, and Focusing Mechanisms Within the Seamless Network—SMEs, Entrepreneurs, and Venture Capital

Selection and Focusing Mechanisms of Start-Up Advanced-Materials SMEs

SMEs and the Venture Capital Community

References

Part Five: Organizing Growth: Clusters and Gatekeepers

Chapter 9: Clustering and Synergies

Introduction to Advanced-Material Clusters [1]

Advanced-Material Clusters in the United States

European Cluster Formation

References

Chapter 10: Gatekeepers and Creative Clusters

Gatekeepers and Advanced Materials

American Styles of Gatekeeping and Advanced-Material Clusters

Is Europe in the “Gatekeeping” Game?

References

Chapter 11: Conclusion: Broadening Horizons

Multiple Environments, the Seamless Web, and High-Technology Clusters

Opportunities and Threats: Future Choices for the United States, Europe, and Asia

References

Index

The Advanced Materials Revolution

Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

The advanced materials revolution: technology and economic growth in the age of globalization/edited by Sanford L. Moskowitz.      p. cm.   Includes index.   ISBN-978-0-471-61526-2 (cloth)  1. Materials—Research. I. Moskowitz, Sanford L.   TA403.A27 2008

2008021432

To Rose and Becky

Preface

This book is a product, or confluence, of the three professional paths that I have taken in life: Doctoral student, international management consultant, and academician.

The origins of this book can be traced back to my doctoral dissertation (Columbia University, 1999) and to the projects I undertook as a consultant to government agencies, think tanks, and international corporations since the 1980s. My dissertation dealt with what I refer to as the first advanced-materials revolution; that is, it was a history of global petrochemical innovation—fuels, polymers, and catalytic processes—from 1900 to 1960. This study examined which forces spurred on, and which blocked, technology growth and the economic, technical, and social implications that resulted. From this research, I became acutely aware how critical new materials are to a society and to a nation’s economy and ultimate level of competitiveness. My rather extensive work as an economic, market, and technology consultant to government and industry has intensely, and happily, complemented these research interests. As project manager on a variety of assignments, I became, by the mid-1980s, aware that something new and exciting was happening in the world of technology creation as a new generation of materials technology was in the offing. Many were still in development but were most promising, others had already made a major impact on U.S. and global economies, and still others were just beginning to take their first steps into the marketplace. Over the years, I tracked many of these technologies as they evolved from the laboratory to initial market entrance to diffusion within the economy.

By the 1990s, I came to understand that these new material technologies were a decidedly different animal from the earlier petrochemical innovations that I had researched and wrote about. It was clear to me that the era of the petroleum-based “supermolecule” was over in the sense that the radical new developments now emerged from the manipulation of the internal world of individual molecules, rather than the mega-linked-chain structures that characterize nylon, synthetic rubber, polyethylene, and the other polymers with which we are all now familiar. Moreover, with the passing of these materials from the high-technology limelight, I also noticed how often smaller firms, many of them no more than start-up operations, took the place of the traditional mega-corporations in developing the most important new material innovations. In so many cases, these smaller firms licensed patents held by universities. It seemed no coincidence to me that by the 1990s, many U.S. research universities had established various forms of technology transfer offices and incubator facilities to guide the transfer of their faculty’s research efforts to the outside world. And increasingly, the large firm, no longer undertaking brand new technology, came calling on the smaller company for ideas, patents, and licenses, often times acquiring it to possess its valuable intellectual property. But this was not all. In my consulting work (and some initial research into this phenomenon of the “new” advanced materials), I began to see the rise of a number of high-technology industrial “clusters” within the United States that seemed to crystallize around a firm or two involved, either directly or indirectly, in these new materials. This meant a trend away from centralization (away from large firms and one dominant cluster, i.e., Silicon Valley). At the least, these former start-ups were early entrants into the cluster, grew along with it, and became very quickly leading members of the group. Nor did these clusters arise automatically, but seemed to cohere and expand through the agency of strong-willed, multitalented individuals who were known and respected by, and easily moved within circles of, different disciplines and fields: scientific, technical, market, financial, regulatory, and political.

These strands of thinking emerged over time as I talked with various individuals and researched different technologies and markets, both here and abroad, as both inquisitive academic and project-driven managing consultant. As I probed deeper into this world of advanced materials, I began formulating some interesting questions. Could we be witnessing a new type of paradigm for technology change? Can we properly claim that advanced materials is “the” central technology, the “straw the stirs the drink,” of technological change in the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries? If so, has the small or medium-sized advanced-material firm taken over for the large multinational chemical company the role of pioneer in the technology creation game? Has the university’s materials engineering departments, through its technology transfer offices and associated incubators, taken on a more important role in technology creation than it has ever had in the past? From this, can we say that technology creation today is far more a grass-roots, “from-the-bottom” process than the far more familiar “top-down” (large corporations, Federal government) mechanism that has brought the world atomic energy, synthetic rubber, and the mega-technologies of the past? If this is the case, then can we be seeing the rise of a “seamless web” model that links the original academic research with start-up technology and then entrance into the larger economy?

It was at this time that John Wiley contacted me to write an article on advanced materials as an entry for its well-known Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. This project helped to crystallize in my mind the above questions and issues. It also brought me to an understanding of how these newest technologies are so central to a country’s economy and, ultimately, its competitiveness in the world.

As a professor of international business (at St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota), I understood that the rise of these advanced materials is taking place at the same time when the world is becoming more globalized. From my most recent research on globalization, technology, and economic growth, I began to conceive of a larger work, an expansion of my article, that would employ advanced materials as a superb prism through which we might understand the competitive nature of countries and regions in the twenty-first century. This book is the result.

This book is a true hybrid. It is certainly part history, albeit of a more recent vintage, and as such it is a narrative of what the book calls the advanced-materials industry. I discuss the origins of advanced materials in the 1970s and trace their development to the present time. I also link the current crop of advanced materials to the earlier period of petrochemical polymers in order to better understand the similarities and, even more importantly, the distinctions between the two materials revolutions. This book is also descriptive in that it is part technology assessment, industry analysis, and market and product forecast. It describes in some detail what the new materials are and the nature of their markets. It discusses the promising technologies, companies, and regions within the United States and internationally that are on the verge of reaching their full bloom, and others that are not, for whatever reason, able to move forward. These parts of the book should be of interest to investors, entrepreneurs, companies, consulting firms, and universities that want to take their internal research into the real world of markets and competition.

In addition to it being a historical analysis and industry/market description, it is also a thematic analysis on issues that are front and center in international business practice and studies. In this role, advanced materials serve as a very useful guide in helping us understand the forces, institutions, and actors involved that determine national and regional competitive advantage in the globalizing world today. There is a growing division between the United States and the European Union (EU) with respect to productivity and economic performance. Because the EU has grown in geographical extent and resources and has become a more integrated market, it is believed it should be an increasingly worthy competitor to the U.S. economic hegemony, but in fact we see this is not the case. That is, we see a “divergence” rather than “convergence” in the relative performance of the United States and the EU over the last decade and a half. But this is certainly not the “flatness” we ought to be seeing in a growing globalized world, especially in the two regions that are now so apparently equal in their access to important factors of intellectual and material factors of production.

Certainly, many factors account for observed differences in productivity and economic growth: cultural issues (e.g., the greater “leisure culture” of the Europeans), macroeconomic trends (e.g., deficits and currency fluctuations), and sociopolitical movements (demographic shifts and conflicts) and so forth. This book does not mean to dismiss these important forces. However, the evidence—quantitative and qualitative—all points to a fundamental divergence between the United States and the EU stemming from technological differences. Simply put, the United States has been more successful than the EU in recent years in creating and applying the newest technologies; more than ever before in history, technological change is related to economic development and growth; and the evidence shows a growing importance of advanced materials as a component of total technological expansion. That is to say, now more then ever, a country’s technological capability closely shadows its creativity in developing and harnessing the new “advanced” materials. This issue of global technology, as embodied in advanced materials, international competitiveness, and the notion of convergence versus divergence is of great interest today among international business students, scholars, and executives. This book then will be useful to this audience as well as those involved in the study and practice of the management of technology and global development. The model the book proposes for competitiveness not only advances this discussion of the United States versus the EU, but also helps better understand whether Asia is, as generally believed, set to become the economic power of the twenty-first century. We discuss this in the concluding chapter from the point of view of advanced materials, clusters, and competitiveness.

A question I had to address early on was whether there is, in fact, a coherent set of products and processes that can be placed in an advanced-material category. They certainly are a diverse, wide-ranging set of technologies. I have, in fact, relied on what industry specialists and entrepreneurs from the United States, Europe, and Asia have told me when asked what they would include in such a category. Although no two lists were exactly the same, it was clear that certain entries were common to many responders. I have called these the advanced-material category. This category includes not only products themselves (e.g., nanotubes) but processes and instruments used to make and monitor the materials. As for whether we are talking about an industry, it is clear that we see certain common characteristics of this group, such as the importance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), so that we can discuss the industry in terms of a “seamless web” structure. It is also apparent that this group of products is linked together by common process technology in a manner similar to the petrochemical industry.

In this sense then, such as the common theme that the new materials are made by intramolecular manipulation rather than creating large molecular chains, we are dealing with a coherent set of products that constitute an industry. Although nanotechnology is part of the story of advanced materials, and a rather large part at that, it is not the whole story by any means. A number of advanced materials, such as advanced alloys, organic polymer electronic materials, and biorefinery products, are not part of the nanotechnology firmament. In fact, many of the advanced materials that have already had a major economic impact cannot be called nanomaterials. Therefore, the book distinguishes between “nanotechnology” and “advanced materials,” while still recognizing the real and important link between the two realms of technology.

This book is based on a wide variety of sources. These include government (EU and U.S.) reports and studies; industry studies; articles in international business and trade journals; interviews conducted with entrepreneurs, executives, and academics in the field; scholarly reports and articles; and global company and organization websites. I have incorporated as well (1) the database I have collected over the years on doing work in the advanced-material field, including product and industry studies I have undertaken as well as discussions and interviews I have conducted with specialists in the advanced-material field; and (2) data, information, and insights I have obtained in teaching international business courses over the last several years. Guidance and insights from participants at international conferences at which I presented research papers in the area of global technology and international competitiveness have been invaluable.

Another useful source has been Nanoinvestor News (www.nanoinvestornews.com). Especially helpful have been the industry and corporate profiles. While focused on nanotechnology, these profiles include many advanced-material firms within the United States and internationally. The site was very helpful in guiding me to many of the most important new materials and their firms globally. Degree of “importance” could be determined by how many articles were written about the firm, which was indicated at the end of each profile. Because the site encompassed the world’s advanced technology firms, it minimized the book being biased towards U.S. firms. I was able to fine tune the list through discussions with colleagues, especially when attending conferences in Europe, and in articles in business and trade journals. I also incorporate into this book an unpublished study on advanced materials that I undertook for the state of Virginia. This short examination of the “industry” contains useful information and analysis that has relevance to the present work.

I constructed a number of tables and charts from these sources. Many of these tables are original and specific to U.S. and international advanced materials. Unless otherwise specified, these tables, including those forecast past 2007, have not been previously published. I have developed these tables to conform as closely as possible to the evidence I have at hand.

I have included a number of citations and endnotes after each chapter. I have in no way attempted to drown the reader in citations, as might be expected in a purely academic work. I have however placed citations at points in the discussion that I felt would be useful to the general reader and which indicated what sources I used to reach certain conclusions or make specific claims. At various points, I listed all citations used at the beginning of a section. In other cases, such as direct quotes, I generally included a specific citation and page number. In those cases when page numbers were not available (such as some online documents), I simply cited the document as a whole.

Finally, this book is not meant to be the final word on this subject. The advanced-material industry is too dynamic and far reaching to be encompassed in a single work. The discussions, conclusions, and implications presented in the following pages are based solely on my own experience, research, and insights in the field. The book is actually the first to tackle advanced materials as a global industry with international reach and impact. The book is also not meant to be a paean to American talent and economic might. If the United States has held out longer as a technological leader than generally believed, even in the face of globalization, its position at the top remains quite shaky. The fact that it is, at this writing, in the throes of economic uncertainty and that the rise of Asia as a competititve power in the world is clearly in evidence ought to give even the most inveterate supporters of “The American Century” serious and troubling pause. The question, then, is whether the strengths I describe as wielded by the United States in technology creation and economic growth are gaining additional power for an even brighter future, or quickly losing their once-considerable influence around the world. If the latter is the case, does this then mean a surging European or Asian presence in advanced technology markets, as one or both rush in to fill the vacuum created and thus rise to, or even supersede, the competitive level of the United States? This book hopefully will add to the dialogue and suggest possible directions for future and useful studies on the role of advanced materials as the global technology of the twenty-first century.

SANFORD L. MOSKOWITZ

Saint Joseph, MinnesotaOctober 2008

Acknowledgments

Various parts of this book benefitted in significant ways from the expert advice and suggestions provided by a number of persons. I am most indebted to Professor Alan Brinkley and Professor Walter Metzger who helped guide me through my doctoral dissertation (Columbia, 1999), portions of which I incorporated into critical parts of this book. I have also received continual advice and guidance that has proven of immense value to me from Professor Terry Reynolds (Michigan Technological University), especially in those parts of the book dealing with the innovation process and themes related to the history and social context of technology. I am indebted as well to Professor Stephen Stumpf of Villanova University for his generous support and guidance in the early phases of this project. I am grateful to Professor Jonathan Doh (Villanova University) for introducing me to the intricacies of United States–European Union trade disputes—particularly as related to the “genetically modified food” issue—and his guidance in the area of managing change within the “multien-vironmental” context; this book benefitted greatly from his writings and insights on these issues.

This book incorporated in a significant way my experience as a consultant to the advanced technology sector in Washington DC in the late 1980s and 1990s. Richard Cooperman and Janice Lipson were my invaluable guides and advisors in this work. They proved especially important in sharpening my skills in market analysis and forecasting and in understanding the legal and regulatory mechanisms of high-technology industries.

I am most grateful to my colleagues in the Departments of Management and Economics at St. John’s University and the College of St. Benedict (Collegeville, Minnesota) for their help and advice during the final stages of this book. I want to thank Professor John Hasselberg and Professor Joseph Friedrich for their unstinting support of my research and in their efforts on my behalf to obtain funding to present my findings at international conferences in the United States and Europe. The suggestions and guidance that I received from international business scholars at these conferences proved very useful in completing the final chapters of the book. I am indebted as well to Professor Louis Johnston for his excellent insights into the economic history of innovation that, both directly and indirectly, entered materially into this book. Of particular relevance to this study were Professor Johnston’s discussions with me regarding the relationship over time between technology and productivity and the relevance of the recent work done by economic geographers on the “convergence” versus “divergence” issue.

I have been the grateful beneficiary of the talents of superb research assistants that have aided me significantly in this effort. I am indebted to Mr. Andrew Bruskin who proved to be a first class researcher and analyst. Mr. Bruskin helped me work through some of the more difficult research problems that came my way in the course of this project. He was particularly critical in the areas involving the legal and political issues related to advanced technology and was a very useful guide into state and local mechanisms for high-technology cluster development. This book benefitted greatly from the research assistance of Ms. Roxanne Rabe and Ms. Elizabeth Sturlaugson. Over the course of two summers, they worked tirelessly to help prepare portions of the manuscript for presentation at conferences in Berlin, Paris, Florence, Athens, and Vienna. They aided me as well as copresenters at these conferences and in incorporating the critical input from the conferences into the final manuscript. Their advice and insights in this undertaking helped shape the final results and observations included in the book. I am also indebted to the very excellent work of Judy Shank and Sue Zimmer for their careful editing and efficient preparation of this manuscript.

In the final analysis, of course, I can blame none of the shortcomings of this volume on any of the superb people who have so graciously assisted me on this book. That responsibility I must carry on my shoulders alone.

S. L. M.

Part One

Advanced Materials, Past and Present

The end of the last century ushered in a revolution in technology that is still unfolding. The emergence of the advanced materials industry, beginning in the early 1980s, ushered in one of the most dynamic and important chapters in U.S. and international industrial history. These revolutionary materials possess new and different types of internal structures and exhibit novel physical and chemical properties with an unprecedented range of application. They have already gained a strategic foothold in international economies. They continue to diffuse into and transform the world that we know, and the society we will come to know over the next century and beyond. By 2020, they will generate direct sales worldwide of hundreds of millions of dollars. These materials invade and restructure virtually all the major industrial sectors. They particularly impact the computer and information sector, redefine the nature of energy creation and transmission, and are leading change of epic proportions in the biomedical, healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing industries. The very nature and trajectory of twenty-first century technological change, and the productivity growth and economic progress that follow in their wake, fundamentally hinges on these essential building blocks of modern life.

These materials include the new generation of metals, advanced plastics and ceramics, and biosynthetics. Beyond these metals and synthetic organic materials, the advanced materials field finds itself embedded within the very heart of the emerging world of nanotechnology. Indeed, the so-called nanomaterials, more than any other area of nanotechnology, amply testifies to the commercial possibilities of this new world of the very small. The techniques, instruments, and knowledge of nanotechnology open up the vast possibility of the manipulation and restructuring of molecular units within many substances and material systems. It is in this realm that some of the most exciting and economically important developments emerge, including nanotubes and nanospheres, thin films, nanofibers, and nanocomposites. The alteration of the vast spectrum of the world’s materials is the most important application of nanotechnology as a whole. Nanotechnology is the key in the coming new generation of polymers, cutting tools, coatings, optical components, catalysts, corrosion-resistant materials, and drug delivery systems.