Between Promise and Performance: Science and Technology Policy Implementation through Network Governance

Abstract

This research analyzes the effects of U.S. science and technology policy on the technological performance of organizations in a global strategic alliance network. During the mid-1980s the U.S. semiconductor industry appeared to be collapsing. Industry leaders and policymakers moved to support and protect U.S. firms by creating a program called Sematech. While many scholars regard Sematech as a success, how the program succeeded remains unclear. This study re-contextualizes Sematech as a network administrative organization which lowered cooperation costs and enhanced resource combination for innovation at the cutting edge. This study combines network analysis and longitudinal regression techniques to test the effects of public policy on organizational network position and technological performance in an unbalanced panel of semiconductor firms between 1986 and 2001. This research suggests governments might achieve policy through inter-organizational innovations aimed at the development and administration of robust governance networks.