Abstract
How can technology be better utilized to meet socioeconomic needs? Technological change is closely related to societal change. At the level of the firm, technology is a tool to achieve and sustain competitive advantage but radical innovation is system oriented and involves infrastructure. The paramount role of information technology has to be emphasised. Two new concepts are emerging; Just in Time/Total Quality Control (JIT/TQC) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). So-called value-added-networks or VANs are catching on in Western countries. The bottlenecks are the costs, the externalities, the lack of standardization, and the system incoherence. Brief case-studies are developed: The new generation of metros, high speed trains, the motor industry, and intermodalism with utilization of High-Cube containers. The findings of these studies show that organizational innovation has to go along with technological innovation.
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