IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/indcch/v13y2004i3p505-529.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the capital goods economy: complex product systems in the UK

Author

Listed:
  • Virginia Acha
  • Andrew Davies
  • Michael Hobday
  • Ammon Salter

Abstract

Over the past decade, qualitative empirical research at the firm, project and industry levels has improved our understanding of the characteristics and dynamics of innovation in the high technology, high value capital goods or 'complex product systems' (CoPS) which underpin modern industrial activity. This paper describes the development of a new industrial classification system for CoPS which is able to estimate quantitative shares of production and value added accounted for by CoPS at the economy level. It is also able to provide insights into the capital, information technology and skill intensity of CoPS, as well as employment contributions. As an example, the method is applied to one major industrial economy, namely the UK. Through a comparison of CoPS with non-CoPS industries, the paper identifies some of the key factors which explain the different patterns of innovation between the two types of industrial activity. Although preliminary, the analysis shows that CoPS-based industries together represent a distinctive class of industrial activity. Based on the classification system provided, further research is underway to examine cross-country comparisons in both production and trade performance, through time. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Virginia Acha & Andrew Davies & Michael Hobday & Ammon Salter, 2004. "Exploring the capital goods economy: complex product systems in the UK," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 13(3), pages 505-529, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:13:y:2004:i:3:p:505-529
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ardito, Lorenzo & Natalicchio, Angelo & Appio, Francesco Paolo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio, 2021. "The role of scientific knowledge within inventing teams and the moderating effects of team internationalization and team experience: Empirical tests into the aerospace sector," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 701-710.
    2. Kiamehr, Mehdi & Hobday, Mike & Hamedi, Mohsen, 2015. "Latecomer firm strategies in complex product systems (CoPS): The case of Iran’s thermal electricity generation systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(6), pages 1240-1251.
    3. Moshfique Uddin & Anup Chowdhury & Geoffrey Wood, 2022. "The resilience of the British and European goods industry: Challenge of Brexit," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 31(4), pages 934-954.
    4. Raphael Kaplinsky & Amelia Santos Paulino, 2005. "Innovation and Competitiveness: Trends in Unit Prices in Global Trade," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3-4), pages 333-355.
    5. Zhongji Yang & Liangqun Qi & Xin Li & Tianxi Wang, 2022. "How Does Successful Catch-Up Occur in Complex Products and Systems from the Innovation Ecosystem Perspective? A Case of China’s High-Speed Railway," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Felipe, Jesus & Kumar, Utsav & Abdon, Arnelyn & Bacate, Marife, 2012. "Product complexity and economic development," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 36-68.
    7. Pierre Barbaroux & Victor Santos Paulino, 2022. "Why do motives matter? A demand-based view of the dynamics of a complex products and systems (CoPS) industry," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 32(4), pages 1175-1204, September.
    8. Huenteler, Joern & Ossenbrink, Jan & Schmidt, Tobias S. & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2016. "How a product’s design hierarchy shapes the evolution of technological knowledge—Evidence from patent-citation networks in wind power," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1195-1217.
    9. Pierre Barbaroux, 2020. "The transformation of the defense innovation system: knowledge bases, disruptive technologies, and operational capabilities," Post-Print hal-03223583, HAL.
    10. Naghizadeh, Mohammad & Manteghi, Manoochehr & Ranga, Marina & Naghizadeh, Reza, 2017. "Managing integration in complex product systems: The experience of the IR-150 aircraft design program," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 253-261.
    11. Kiamehr, Mehdi, 2017. "Paths of technological capability building in complex capital goods: The case of hydro electricity generation systems in Iran," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 215-230.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:indcch:v:13:y:2004:i:3:p:505-529. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/icc .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.