Optoelectronics — a Leading Core Technology

Abstract

In Chapter 1, we considered the main reasons for choosing optoelectronics as a field of study. First, optoelectronics is a technological domain of growing importance and pervasiveness, yielding a broad range of applications in several key sectors of the economy. Secondly, it has been an emerging and dynamic technological domain; it is therefore suitable for studying firms’ entry strategies, which are related to their previous techno-economic trajectories. Thirdly, it is also a domain which can be characterized by the three levels of (1) systems and products, (2) key components and (3) component generic technologies. It should allow us to gain an understanding of firms’ strategies for maintaining effective linkages between the three levels. Finally, it is an area characterized by fierce international competition, in which Japan has done some pioneering work and in some aspects overtaken the US. We shall therefore be analyzing the competence-building strategies of European and Japanese firms in an area where Japan is at the world frontier. The main purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the evolution of optoelectronics and its technical and economic features.