Science-Driven vs. Market-Pioneering High Tech : Comparative German Technology Sectors in the Late Nineteenth and Late Twentieth Centuries

Imperial Germany can be considered the cradle of high-technology industry. This review of organizational innovations in Germany`s early `high-tech` industries, electricity and organic chemicals in the late nineteenth century, as well as in two modern German high-tech sectors, computing and biotechnology in the late twentieth century, underscores enduring cross-sectoral variations in high-tech competition. The contrast between science-driven and market-pioneering high-tech sectors is shown to be historically robust, with implications for the so-called European Paradox of high Ramp;D levels unmatched by corresponding levels of commercial performance in European high-tech sectors