The computer sector in Irish manufacturing: past triumphs, present strains, future challenges
Year: 2002
Type: article
Abstract: The health of the computer sector has come to symbolise the\nmodernisation and rapid growth of the Irish economy during the 1990s. Any threats\nto its sustainability strike at the heart of broader economic and industrial strategy.\nAfter a brief statistical overview, this paper examines the wider strategic factors that\nfacilitated the rise of the Irish computer ?agglomeration?. It describes how domestic\npolicy evolved within a series of coherent frameworks that took account of the\nnature of the external environment (opportunities and threats) as well as realistic\nviews of domestic capabilities (strengths and weaknesses). Within these\nframeworks, the decisions of individual policymakers shaped an industrial strategy\nthat took decades to bear fruit and was a key contribution to bringing about\nconvergence to EU standards of living. The paper also explores the likely future of\nthe Irish computer sector, as it attempts to deal with an unfolding recession that\nstarted in the United States, the source of almost all high technology inward\ninvestment, but threatens to spread to Europe and elsewhere, key destinations of\nIrish computer-related exports. When the recession passes, the paper suggests that\nthe Irish computer sector is unlikely simply to pick up where it left off in the\nbuoyant latter part of the year 2000, but will undergo fundamental evolution and\nchange in order to meet new global technological and economic challenges.
Author: John Bradley
Language: English
Subfield: Economics and Econometrics
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W78389629