On the blackness of kettles: Inter-industry comparisons in rates of technological innovation

Conventional indirect measures of technological change in industry are shown to mislead analysts of the building industry. The result is a continuing popular and academic misreading of the industry. The diffusion of 14 innovations in the industry are measured empirically rather than inferentially and differences in diffusion rates are related to the industry's management of those innovations. A joint public-private strategy for managing future innovations is suggested.Paper prepared for an MIT-Sloan Foundation, Technology and Public Policy Workshop, February 16–17, 1979, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The views expressed are the author's own and reflect the results of earlier research supported by the MIT-Harvard Joint Center for Urban Studies, the International City Management Association, and the Harvard-MIT Study of the Construction Industry. The author's views are not necessarily shared by the National Bureau of Standards. An abbreviated version of this article appeared in the November 1979 Technology Review.