Cross-Products Technology Spillover In Inducing A Self-Propagating Dynamism For The Shift To A Service Oriented Economy: Lessons From High-Performance Fine Ceramics | Akira Ohmura & Chihiro Watanabe

While it is strongly expected that firms are switching from manufacturing technology (MT) driven growth-oriented trajectory to information technology (IT) driven functionality- initiated trajectory in a service oriented economy, substance of the mechanism in this switching has still remained a black box. Innovation of high quality materials is the basis of the next generation industry and fine ceramics are expected to lead a way for this innovation as they are invented by innovative manufacturing process. Consequently, fine ceramics have accomplished a rapid development through substituting for a broad range of materials, both high-performance materials and structural materials. However, contrary to a remarkable development of the fine ceramics as high performance materials, structural materials have experienced stagnating trends. This contrast can be attributed to the differences of functionality between two materials which is quite similar to the contrasting development trajectories between IT and MT. Careful observation of the certain fine ceramics which shifted from structural materials to high-performance materials recently demonstrates technology spillover carried by researchers through their active interactions between two fields of R&D. This finding leads to additional finding that such active interactions of researchers explore cross- products technology spillover leading to a self-propagating development typically observed in IT development dynamism. These observations could provide a significant insight to an elucidation of a mechanism in facilitating a switching from MT driven growth-oriented trajectory to IT driven functionality- initiated trajectory for a service oriented economy. This paper, on the basis of the empirical analysis of the development trajectories of fine ceramics over the last quarter century, demonstrates this hypothetical view.