Innovation and Technological Change: An Austrian-British Comparison

Despite a growing body of empirical evidence that demonstrates the nature of spatial variations in innovation and the adoption of new technologies, few studies have been conducted in such a way as to enable direct comparisons between different countries, either to establish international differences in innovative performance or to identify differences in regional patterns in different national contexts, particularly between EC and non-EC countries within Europe. In this paper the results of recent surveys of comparable industries in Great Britain and Austria are used to begin to address this issue, with particular attention to some of the inherent difficulties in undertaking such comparisons. By using a mixture of simple cross-tabulations and multivariate logit models, differences between the two countries in the adoption of a number of new process technologies based upon microelectronics in the spheres of manufacturing production, design, and coordination are identified. It is suggested that, not only does Austria lag Great Britain in the introduction of new technology, but that variations between similar types of region are more pronounced and entrenched in Austria at the present time.