Innovativeness in Times of Crisis: How West German Manufacturers of Consumer Goods Dealt with the Structural Crisis of the 1970s - A Comparison of Successful and Failed Industries and Businesses

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Reinhold Bauer; Professor Dr. Wolfgang Burr
• Subject Area: History of Science
• Term: from 2017 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 381205062

The research project examines on the basis of two subprojects, how companies and industries successfully master a structural crisis or fail to do so. The question is raised, how crises are identified, interpreted and managed or under which conditions this just fails.The focus is particularly on innovativeness or insufficient innovativeness, which will be examined on the basis of an interdisciplinary collaboration between economic and historical innovation research. Both disciplines thereby benefit from the concepts/theories (i. a. resource based view of the firm, industry lifecycle concepts versus actor structure approach, innovation styles and innovation cultures) and methods (i. a. industry analyses, business case studies versus historical-critical method, scientific working with archives) of the other.The research focuses in particular on the complex structural crisis by which Western industrial countries were seized in the 1970s due to technological progress (microelectronics) and internationalization of competition (Japan`s entry to the global market). The West German industry tackled this crisis with varying success. While manufacturers of capital goods and high value consumer goods emerged strengthened from the crisis as a whole, this applies only in part for manufacturers of consumer goods. Hence, the consumer electronics business (brown goods), for example, did not manage to adapt to changed framework conditions in the medium term. However, manufacturers of household appliances (white goods) have, at least in part, mastered the crisis very well. In view of these differences, the research project raises the key question how this varying ability to master the crisis can be explained, e. g. with the companies` different innovation capabilities.The research project will focus on manufacturers of washing machines on the one hand (project part Burr) and on manufacturers of tape decks and picture disc players on the other hand (project part Bauer), which will be examined in the form of two industry and business case studies closely connected to each other. Both producer groups offered consumer goods and complex multi technology products (mechanical systems, electronics, and propulsion technology), which were likely to be in a similar price category.The benefit of this research project for science is to be seen in the outlined cross-fertilization of the disciplines as well as in the processing of a still underexplored question (perception of the crisis, successful or insufficient innovativeness in times of crisis, success or failure of companies in structural crises). The research project is immediately relevant to the current business practice.The cooperation between the Chair for the History of the Impact of Technology and the Chair of General Business Administration, especially Innovation and Service Management is designed for the long haul. It is intended to file an application for extension for a second funding period from 2020 to 2023.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants