Regional Impact on Technological Change: The Evolution and Development of the Twin-Wire Paper Machine from 1950 to 1988

Abstract

In this paper the impact of regions on the evolution and development of technology is examined via a new paper-making technology (the twin-wire machine) as a case study. In particular, differences in raw material and physical environmental conditions, consumer tastes and preferences, and industrial organization and corporate strategies between the two regions, North America and Europe, provided different demand and supply conditions for the development of the twin-wire technology. These conditions initially influenced the development of different twin-wire trajectories in North America and Europe. Later on, these trajectories began to converge as the supply and demand conditions, which had established them, began to change.