New public infrastructures for small firm industral modernization in the USA

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Abstract
There has been increasing concern in the United States about lagging industrial modernization, especially amongst the nation's small and midsized manufacturers with 500 or fewer employees. This has prompted a series of new technological infrastructure initiatives by federal and state governments, academic and industry organizations, and other groups. New legislation, policies and programmes have been established to promote industrial competitiveness and modernization for small and midsized firms. After considering the dimensions of the industrial modernization problem, the paper examines US federal and state technological infrastructural interventions aimed at promoting industrial modernization. These include industry and technology centres, industrial extension and technology deployment proyrammes, industry consortia and networking, and support for conversion from defence to civilian technologies and markets. The paper considers insights and best practices from the US experience with these programmes and discusses issues and policy questions that remain to be addresseed.