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      DEFINING HIGH TECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY: A CONSENSUS APPROACH

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      high technology, state programs, industrial policy, employment projections
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            Abstract

            Reasons are suggested for care over the definition of high technology industry. Some general approaches to definition are outlined, and a chronology of definitions is presented. Conceptual and practical problems with conventional choices are discussed, and a new consensus definition — drawn from a survey of current practice in the USA — is suggested as a complement to objective definitions. This is used to speculate upon high tech's potential role in the overall US employment problem.

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            Author and article information

            Journal
            cpro20
            CPRO
            Prometheus
            Critical Studies in Innovation
            Pluto Journals
            0810-9028
            1470-1030
            December 1987
            : 5
            : 2
            : 237-262
            Affiliations
            Article
            8629441 Prometheus, Vol. 5, No. 2, 1987: pp. 237–262
            10.1080/08109028708629441
            ef83d078-4be3-4a46-a077-c475c45aa19d
            Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

            All content is freely available without charge to users or their institutions. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission of the publisher or the author. Articles published in the journal are distributed under a http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

            History
            Page count
            Figures: 0, Tables: 0, References: 102, Pages: 26
            Categories
            Original Articles

            Computer science,Arts,Social & Behavioral Sciences,Law,History,Economics
            high technology,state programs,employment projections,industrial policy

            NOTES AND REFERENCES

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            54. R. Kelly, op. cit.

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            59. Riche, Hecker and Burgan, op. cit.

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            73. An Act to Provide Tax Incentives and Financial Assistance to Advanced Technology Business, Mississippi Legislature, House Bill No. 145, by Rep. Hall, Ways & Means, Regular Session, New Capitol Building, 400 High St., Jackson MS 39201, 1984.

            74. T. Kelly, The Location, Organisation, and Regional Impact of High Technology Industry in the UK, unpublished paper, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, 1983.

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            79. County Business Patterns, 1982, United States, US Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, CBP-82-1, USGPO, Washington DC, 1985 and earlier years.

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            81. Lawson, op. cit.

            82. R. Kelly, op. cit.

            83. Davis, op. cit.

            84. Flynn, op. cit.

            85. Standard Industrial Classification Manual, 1972 (with 1977 update), US Office of Management and Budget, Washington DC.

            86. The four-digit codes which are not included in the majority of four-digit definitions, but which are buried inside a three-digit code in the majority of three-digit definitions (presumably because the relative coarseness does not allow separation) are: turbines and turbine generator sets (SIC 3511), internal combustion engines nee (SIC 3519), typewriters (SIC 3572), phonograph records (SIC 3652), cathode ray television picture tubes (SIC 3672), and electronic connectors (SIC 3678). The implication is they are falsely included at a three-digit level. Conversely, the four-digit codes appearing in the majority of four-digit definitions, but which are not covered by the three-digit codes in the majority of three-digit definitions, are: industrial controls (SIC 3622), industrial organic chemicals nec (SIC 2869), X-ray apparatus and tubes (SIC 3693), and R & D labs (SIC 7391). The implication here is they are falsely omitted by a three-digit level of definition.

            87. J. Beaumont, The Location, Mobility and Finance of New High Technology Companies in the UK Electronics Industry, unpublished study, UK Department of Industry, South East Regional Office, November 1982.

            88. US Office of Technology Assessment, op. cit., 1983a.

            89. Flynn, op. cit.

            90. For example, Vinson and Harrington's Table 4 has electrical industrial apparatus (SIC 362) incorrectly labelled as 372. The OTA in 1984a printed on p. 120 Armington et al.'s SIC code for small arms as 3486 when its actual number is 3484. A. Markusen, Defense Spending and the Geography of High Tech Industries, Working Paper No. 423, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley CA 94720, 1984, on p. 35 allocates organic chemicals (misc) the code 2866 instead of the correct 2869, and radio, TV communications the code 3622 instead of 3662. These are easy transcription errors to make in the course of several drafts of typing.

            91. For example, US High Technology Trade and Competitiveness, International Trade Administration, Office of Trade and Investment Analysis, US Department of Commerce, Staff Report DIE-01-85, USGPO, Washington DC, February 1985, includes SIC codes 287 and 351 in DOC1 (Boretsky's 1971 definition), whereas its earlier report, An Assessment of US Competitiveness in High Technology Industries, July 1983, does not. The ITA also includes SIC 361 (electric distributing equipment) in its version of DOC2, but this was in the non-technology intensive category in Table 4 of R. Kelly's original work. Tomaskovic-Devey and Miller and Flynn disagree over what is included in the Massachusetts definition: the former include SIC codes 281, 282, 351 and 372, which the latter omits, while the converse holds for codes 348, 363, 364, 365, 369, 379, 384, 385 and 387.

            92. Langridge, op. cit.

            93. Markusen, Hall and Glasmeier, op. cit.

            94. C. Thompson, ‘Definitions of high technology used by state programs in the USA: a study of variation in industrial policy under a federal system’, Environment and Planning C: Government and Policy (forthcoming, 1987).

            95. J. Grunwald and K. Flamm, The Global Factory: Foreign Assembly in International Trade, Brookings Institution, Washington DC, 1985.

            96. Saxenian, op. cit.

            97. S. Zucker, C. Deutsch, J. Hoerr, N. Jonas, J. Pearson, and J. Cooper, The Reindustrialization of America, The Business Week Team, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 1982.

            98. S. Cohen, Modern Capitalist Planning: The French Model, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA 94720, 1977.

            99. E. Mansfield, J. Rapoport, A. Romeo, E. Villani, S. Wagner, and F. Husik, The Production and Application of New Industrial Technology, W. W. Norton, New York, 1977; Freeman, op. cit.; L. Telser, ‘A theory of innovation and its effects’, Bell Journal of Economics, 13, 1, 1982, pp. 69–92.

            100. A. Markusen, Profit Cycles, Oligopoly and Regional Development, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass, 1985; Markusen, Hall and Glasmeier, op. cit.

            101. R. Walker, ‘Technological determination and determinism: industrial growth and location’ in M. Castells, High Technology, Space and Society, SAGE Urban I Affairs Annual Reviews, 28, Beverly Hills CA, 1985, pp. 226–64.

            102. M. Storper, ‘Technology and spatial production relations: disequilibrium, interindustry relationships, and industrial development’ in Castells, op. cit., pp. 265–83.

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