Sematech 1990

The triumphs and setbacks of inventor and entrepreneur Robert Noyce are illuminated in a biography that describes his colorful life in context of the evolution of the high-tech industry and the complex interrelationships among technology, business, big money, politics, and culture in Silicon Valley.

Herman and George R. Brown, formidable figures in the construction industry and Texas politics, made a unique business team. Practical and decisive Herman and university-trained, soft-spoken George, a natural salesperson, combined their individual strengths, strong work ethic, and ambition to develop Brown & Root, one of America's preeminent construction companies. Builders serves both as a history of their lives and as an examination of business life in mid-twentieth-century America. In addition to examining the brothers' business accomplishments, Pratt and Castaneda address the political influence and antiunionism associated with the Brown name and present a balanced account of both the Browns' treatment of workers and of their longtime relationship with Lyndon Baines Johnson. Builders also traces the Browns' philanthropy, including the work of the Brown Foundation, through which George in particular contributed to the development of educational and cultural institutions.

As U.S. industry faces worldwide challenges, policymakers are asking questions about the role of the federal government-not only in promoting basic research but also in ushering new innovations to the marketplace. This book offers an expert consensus on how government and industry together can respond to the new realities of a global marketplace. The volume offers firm conclusions about policy and organizational changes with the greatest potential to improve our technological competitiveness-and presents three alternative approaches for a new federal role. The volume examines: How federal involvement in technology development affects the nation's economic well-being. What we can learn from past federal efforts to stimulate civilian technology development-in the United States and among our major industrial competitors. How trends in productivity, R&D, and other key areas have affected U.S. performance, and how we compare to the world's rising industrial economies. Offering guidance on one of the 1990s most important issues, this volume will be indispensible to federal policymakers, executives in industry and technology, and researchers.

This book examines how transnational corporations, small to medium enterprises and governments have emerged as the principal players in industrial development. This valuable work examines this trend, with particular reference to the role of the tax policy in technology development, the financing of technology-sector SMEs, the role of government policy and the relationship between competition and co-operation.