Emergence of research and innovation activities in the chemical industry at the beginning of the twentieth century: the case of IG Farben and Du Pont

Download

index.pdf

Date

2018

Author

Doğan, Muhsin

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

322
views

148
downloads

In the 19th Century, after constant investments by governments and private sector to Chemical industry, Germany and the USA rised in terms of technological leadership, technological infrastructure and human capital for a long period. In these countries, there had been their own unique National Systems of Innovation. Thanks to this process, two giant chemical firms – IG Farben in Germany and DuPont in the US have come to existence. Each of these firms had successful innovation paths throughout their history. Their innovation performance in synthetic chemicals clearly demonstrates the vital importance of a sound, solid National Innovation System. However, coming to the 1940s, it is striking to see how these two giant technology firms entered into the service of political/bureaucratic authorities and how science and technology were affected by these circumstances. Therefore, the dissertation argues that two cases are different in three main aspects: research design of companies (centralized v vs. decentralized decision making), policy differences (applied vs. fundamental research), and driving forces of research (market-driven vs. science-driven research). The principal purpose of the dissertation is to clarify these points. The first aim is to understand and then describe similarities and differences via analyzing innovation and learning process in IG Farben and DuPont between 1925 and 1945. The second aim is to explain the patterns of innovation and learning for innovation and technology studies with the help of comparative historical case study. Therefore, the dissertation predominantly focuses on pre-war and war periods to shed light on the effects of authoritive figures on chemical sector during the war period. Innovation activities of both firms during the war period will be examined in detail with the assistance of archival data and historical documents.

Subject Keywords

Chemical industry., Chemistry, Research, Industrial., Technological forecasting., Technological innovations.

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12622009/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/27224

Collections

Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Impact assessment of vision 2023 technology foresight in defense sector Burhan, Mukaddes; Çakır, Serhat; Department of Science and Technology Policy Studies (2018) This thesis was conducted in the scope of impact analysis of technology foresight intervention which was conducted to influence policies and decisions to benefit from sience and technology to create a knowledge society and innovative economy. The first objective is to assess the long-term ex-post impact of Vision 2023 technology foresight in defense sector. The second objective is the development of a model to assess the impact. An impact assessment scale was developed by implementing program-based theory a...
ADOPTING AI TECHNIQUES IN ROBOTIC FABRICATION IN ARCHITECTURE: INTELLIGENT ROBOTIC BRICKLAYING USING REINFORCEMENT LEARNING ALGORITHMS Maali Esfangareh, Alireza; Sorguç, Arzu; Department of Aerospace Engineering (2022-5-16) Today, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is taking place and changing many industries and manufacturing methods to fulfill the tremendous global demand for different products and services using every available technological development. Moreover, in the context of Industry 4.0, one of the most critical challenges of Cyber-Physical Production is to have not only economically efficient but also adaptive and flexible production methods under different circumstances. However, by a simple investigation of the arc...
Analysis of foreign ownership, RD and spillovers in developing countries: Evidence from Turkey Pamukcu, Mehmet Teoman (null; 2011-09-02) In the past few decades globalization enabled a new playing field for emerging economies. With the falling costs of information and communication technologies, multinational companies (MNCs) from the developed world first took advantage of the low labor costs in the developing economies. However, recognizing the lower cost of skilled manpower in the same countries, MNCs started to take advantage of scientists and engineers as well. Therefore, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has been recognized as a major me...
How do institutions matter for innovative entrepreneurship? An investigation at the regional scale demirdağ, ismail; Eraydın, Ayda; Department of City and Regional Planning (2021-7-2) Entrepreneurship, which is widely regarded as the primary source of employment, technological progress, innovation and sustainable economic growth and development, differs significantly in terms of level and type across countries and even regions of the same country. Numerous studies have tried to explain why the level and type of entrepreneurship vary by regions with various regional determinants such as human capital, financial resources, unemployment, urbanisation, natural opportunities, industrial clust...
A study on the relative strenghts of the European Community and Turkey in the information technology and telecommunications sector Atilla, Ziya Hakan; Ateş, Hüseyin; Department of Business Administration (1988) Information technology and telecommunications industry is important to countries regarding their economic development mainly because of two reasons. Firstly, it represents a large and rapidly growing sector of the economy, initiating production, employment, and wealth. Secondly, it is a driving force for the other sectors of the economy which it is in constant interaction. The European Community identifies the information technology and telecommunications sector as a strategic one and several programmes are...

Citation Formats

M. Doğan, “Emergence of research and innovation activities in the chemical industry at the beginning of the twentieth century: the case of IG Farben and Du Pont,” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2018.