Innovation and Competitiveness in Portable Power Tools

Abstract

Portable power tools make up one of the smallest sectors of the machine-building industry; worldwide, the sector employs fewer than 50,000 people. Nevertheless, it illustrates a number of features of wider significance: the process of mechanisation; the long-term economic significance of continuous, small-step improvements in technology based on a sustained commitment to design and development; a long-standing British backwardness in developing and adopting innovations.

This chapter is based on a longer and more detailed study by W. Walker and P. Gardiner (1978). Unless otherwise indicated, the information in it is based on that collected from the industry during the course of the study, which involved discussions with the major companies in Europe and the USA.