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Strategy and Circumstance: the Response of American Firms to Japanese Competition in Semiconductors, 1980-1995

2000; RELX Group (Netherlands); Linguagem: Inglês

10.2139/ssrn.204093

1556-5068

Richard N. Langlois, W. Edward Steinmueller,

Asian Industrial and Economic Development

The transistor was an American invention, and American firms led the world in semiconductor production and innovation for the first three decades of that industry's existence. In the 1980s, however, Japanese producers began to challenge American dominance. Shrill cries arose from the literature of public policy, warning that the American semiconductor industry would soon share the fate of the lamented American consumer electronics business. Few dissented from the implications: the only hope for salvation would be to adopt Japanese-style public policies and imitate the kinds of capabilities Japanese firms possessed.