Overview
The computer industry, which includes the production of computer hardware, software and services, was one of the UK’s most important ‘high-technology’ industries, employing 220,000 workers in 1995. Yet during the 1990s, UK computer firms were faced with intense competitive pressures and rapidly changing technology and market demand. Within this context, this project investigated the impact of changing technology, market demand and globalisation of production on business organisation, performance and location within this important industry. The research covered both computer hardware manufacturing, dominated by foreign direct investment and large companies, and computer software and services, both of which have experienced a considerable growth of smaller indigenous UK companies.
Some of the questions which the research sought to investigate includes the following:
- How and why do ownership patterns by sector within the industry differ between hardware and software/services producers, and how important is technological convergence in explaining these patterns?
- What is the relative role of FDI and acquisition, on the one hand, and indigenous company formation and ownership, on the other, in the different sub-sectors of the UK computer industry, and what factors explain observed differences?
- How does company performance vary within the industry, and what factors appear to be associated with, if not explain, performance variations?
- How innovative are UK computer firms in the different sub-sectors, and what factors appear to be associated with greater or lesser innovativeness?
Principal investigators
- David Keeble
- Suma Athreye