Making in America: From Innovation to Market

Over the past few decades, domestic manufacturing has declined in the U.S., leaving innovation of new products and ideas to dissipate. Berger (How We Compete: What Companies Around the World Are Doing to Make It in the Global Economy) together with the MIT's Production in the Innovation Economy project team, looks at how innovation is vital for economic growth and for a productive economy. Superstar corporations such as Apple and Cisco who have shipped all of their production overseas still reap major profits; the question raised now is whether we need manufacturing domestically in the least. The MIT experts focus on this critical problem and examine various research studies to determine whether linking innovation and production could help the U.S. economy prosper. In examining this path of innovative ideas to products, Berger and her team interviewed over 250 firms including small startups as well as in "Main Street" manufacturers in countries such as Germany and China only to discover gaps in the industrial ecosystem. In the remainder of the chapters, Berger describes how advances in technology can help advance manufacturing, thus transforming production in U.S. Clear, concise writing and dynamic case studies make this a satisfactory read for anyone interested in economics. (Sept.)