Strategies, Politics and High Technology in Europe
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Strategies, Politics and High Technology in Europe Johan Lembke Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, The George Washington University, 1957 E Street, N.W., Suite 412 USA. E-mail: [email protected]
This article provides a comparative analysis of technology-based economic development by examining industry strategies in the satellite navigation, wireless communications and digital audio broadcasting sectors. The leading promoters in each sector claimed that coordinated, supportive public economic strategies and support were imperative for European competitiveness, but the ensuing support differed across these sectors. This article contends that the relative position of the leading economic actors in the structure of international competition and the import-competition situation explains this variation. Comparative European Politics (2003) 1, 253–275. doi:10.1057/palgrave.cep.6110018 Keywords: corporate strategy; EU; global competition; high technology; industry policy
This article provides a comparative analysis of European Union (EU) industry support for high technology by an examination of satellite navigation (Galileo), third-generation wireless communications (UMTS) and terrestrial digital audio broadcasting (T-DAB)1. Although these sectors carry the potential of attracting public intervention due to (real, perceived, claimed) macro-economic and other benefits, the outcome in terms of strategic demands and industry support has varied. Why have seemingly similar large-scale industrial developments and their respective supporters enjoyed variation in industry support? Why have the dominant corporate strategy differed across these high-technology industries? The focus is on strategic demands for ‘hightechnology policy’, which here refers to active and purposive market adjustment intervention by public institutions to shape leading-edge, largescale and technology-intensive infrastructures in the pre-implementation and policy formulation stages to maximize economic, political and other gains. The technology infrastructure projects and sectors covered in this study can be viewed as (1) potential contributors to macro-economic and industrial benefits (the creation of value-added infrastructure and high-skilled jobs with potential spillover effects for the rest of the economy), as well as (2) competitors in and of themselves in an evolving, ‘globalizing’ techno-economic environment (the jockeying for competitive positions among industries as well as public institutions in a broader geo-economic wealth and power structure)
Johan Lembke Strategies, Politics and High Technology in Europe
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(Lawton, 1997, 2000). These sectors and developments share a number of similar characteristics. They represent high-technology infrastructures, they have evolved and been subjected to major adjustment pressure within the same time frame, and they face similar constraints, such as the need for coordination, regulatory and legal certainty, technical standardization and allocation of radi
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