Abstract
Portable power tools make up one of the smallest sectors of the machine-building industry; worldwide, the sector employs fewer than 50,000 people. Nevertheless, it illustrates a number of features of wider significance: the process of mechanisation; the long-term economic significance of continuous, small-step improvements in technology based on a sustained commitment to design and development; a long-standing British backwardness in developing and adopting innovations.
This chapter is based on a longer and more detailed study by W. Walker and P. Gardiner (1978). Unless otherwise indicated, the information in it is based on that collected from the industry during the course of the study, which involved discussions with the major companies in Europe and the USA.
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References
T. Gardland, I. Janelid, H. Lindblad and D. Ramstram, Atlas Copco 1873–1973, The Story of a Worldwide Compressed Air Company (Sweden: Atlas Copco, 1974).
OECD, Trade by Commodities, Series C, Paris: OECD (1963–1976).
W. Walker and J. Gardiner, The Portable Power Tool Industry: a Study of International Industrial Development (mimeo, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex, 1978).
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© 1980 Science Policy Research Unit
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Walker, W.B., Gardiner, J.P. (1980). Innovation and Competitiveness in Portable Power Tools. In: Pavitt, K. (eds) Technical Innovation and British Economic Performance. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04561-7_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-04561-7_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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