Recent iir_cwts_bdetwps items

Is There a Shortage of Engineering Talent in the U.S.?

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 +0000

This paper is based on research conducted for our forthcoming book, Change Is the Only Constant: How the Chip Industry Deals with Crisis. Clair Brown is professor of economics and director of the Center for Work, Technology, and Society (IRLE) at University of California, Berkeley; Greg Linden is senior research fellow at the Center for Work, Technology, and Society at UC Berkeley. Yongwook Paik provided excellent research assistance. The authors would like to thank the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at UC Berkeley, and the Institute for Technology, Enterprise and Competitiveness (ITEC/COE) and Omron Fellowship at Doshisha University, Japan, for funding. We are grateful to Ben Campbell, Bob Doering, David Ferrell, Michael Flynn, Gartner Dataquest, Ron Hira, Dave Hodges, Rob Leachman, Daya Nadamuni, Elena Obukhova, Devadas Pillai, Semiconductor Industry Association, Chintay Shih, Gary Smith, Bill Spencer, Strategic Marketing...

Semiconductor Capabilities in the U.S. and Industrializing Asia

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Semiconductor Capabilities in the U.S. and Industrializing Asia

Offshoring in the Semiconductor Industry: A Historical Perspective

Thu, 19 May 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Semiconductor design is a frequently-cited example of the new wave of offshoring and foreign-outsourcing of service sector jobs. It is certainly a concern to U.S. design engineers themselves.

In addition to the current wave of white-collar outsourcing, the industry also has a rich experience with offshoring of manufacturing activity. Semiconductor companies were among the first to invest in offshore facilities to manufacture goods for imports back to the U.S. A brief review of these earlier manufacturing experiences and their impact on the fortunes of the domestic industry and its workers can help to illuminate the current debates over offshoring in services.

Because meaningful data about the impact of the offshoring of chip design (and even manufacturing) are limited, we rely on a more qualitative analysis for our key points. We have conducted dozens of interviews with engineers and managers at numerous semiconductor and related companies in the United States,...

Wintel and Beyond: Leadership in the Net World Order

Mon, 30 Aug 2004 00:00:00 +0000

The separate vertical product segments of the electronics industry are converging into a Net World Order of multifunctional product categories. We lay out a stylized value chain for analyzing firm performance in the various horizontal segments of the Net World Order. We measure firm performance with ROI data for the 1990s, and find that high-performing companies can emerge in any segment. We then turn our attention to the future and sketch the key elements of value creation and capture in the emerging Net World Order marketplace. Alliances and customer relationships are increasingly important, while standards ownership and vertical integration are less important than in the PC era.