Howard Rush – författare

Garment making has traditionally been a conservative industry in terms of technical innovation. Micro-Electronics and Clothing examines this old industry in relation to a very new family of technologies--micro-electronics. Hoffman and Rush explore the likely effects of micro-electronic innovations on international trade in garments. The ask, will the new technology permit the garment industry in the industrialized countries to meet competition from Thirld World exporters more effectively so that import penetration is stopped and reversed? After examining this question from a variety of angles, the authors suggest that there will be a transitional period between the mid-1980s and the mid-1990s during which the technological transformation of the sector will proceed at a relatively slow pace. They also offer suggestions for Third World clothing exporters who may be technologically advanced enought to take advantage of this transitional period to improve their competitiveness and their position in the market. In addition to research in trade and business sources, this book is based on interviews with clothing manufacturers, capital goods suppliers to the clothing industry, industry consultants, industry associations, and official industry bodies. As a result, the authors have produced a case study in how innovations emerge from ideas and how the structure and organization of an industry influence the spread of new techniques.

Development, Technology and Flexibility (1992) is concerned with forecasting the use of innovation within manufacturing industries. It assesses the factors that inhibit and facilitate the implementation of new technologies and organisational techniques. The focus of the study is on Brazilian industry, whose mixture of advanced and traditional social and economic structures makes its experience relevant to many other regions of the world. Based on interviews with over a hundred leading firms, it examines Brazilian innovators' views as to the prospects for growth, the changing nature of competition, and the likely rates of diffusion for such 'modernising innovations' as computer-aided design, microelectronic process controllers, just-in-time and quality control.

Development, Technology and Flexibility (1992) is concerned with forecasting the use of innovation within manufacturing industries. It assesses the factors that inhibit and facilitate the implementation of new technologies and organisational techniques. The focus of the study is on Brazilian industry, whose mixture of advanced and traditional social and economic structures makes its experience relevant to many other regions of the world. Based on interviews with over a hundred leading firms, it examines Brazilian innovators' views as to the prospects for growth, the changing nature of competition, and the likely rates of diffusion for such 'modernising innovations' as computer-aided design, microelectronic process controllers, just-in-time and quality control.