During the 1980s, the United States’ market share of semiconductor sales began to decline. Several explanations were advanced to explain the trend. For example, the MIT study Made in America attributed this decline to outdated strategies, short-term horizons, technological weaknesses in development and production, neglect of human resources, and failure of cooperation between government and industry.1 Other researchers attributed the sales decline to industry structure: the vertically integrated and diversified Japanese semiconductor firms had been cross-subsidized by downstream businesses, whereas U.S. semiconductor makers had arm’slength customer and supplier relations.2 Still others blamed the decline on the high cost of capital, unfavorable exchange rates, and government policies in the United States.
Interestingly, despite these interpretations, Intel, Micron Technology, LSI Logic, Texas Instruments, and other corporations performed well during this time, and, by the early 1990s, the United States had reclaimed its leading position in the industry.
In this article, I argue that examining the causes of decline and resurgence in U.S. leadership may be incomplete without a firm- and product-level perspective that explores the role of corporate strategies. Such a perspective can provide insights into how a firm is able to react to its local environment, influence it, or profit in spite of it. I argue that a firm can, through its strategic... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
Become a premium subscriber today to read this and all MIT Sloan Managmeent Review articles.
Buy this article. Purchase one or more copies of this article in PDF form.
Become a premium subscriber today to read this article and the entire archive of MIT SMR articles.
Upgrade your existing subscription to premium
Sign in if you are a premium subscriber.
Do you subscribe the MIT Sloan Management Review in print? Enter the email address and password you used when ordering. Don't remember? Lookup your subscription account information
- Register for free access to recent articles and the current issue of MIT Sloan Management Review.
- Subscribe and read articles from the past three years online.
- Premium subscription give you access to the entire archive of articles.
