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The Study On The Innovation Mechanism Of The General Electric Company

Posted on:2015-02-26Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:C H YangFull Text:PDF
GTID:1109330467483210Subject:World History
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The financial and economic crises are both challenges and opportunities for enterprises, industries, as well as all kinds of businesses of the whole country and the world. The "House of Cards" made of money would always be blown away by a gust of wind and the huge sum of money collected by opportunistic behaviors, or so-called fortunes and chances would not be going a long way. Nevertheless, the innovation traditions forged by long-term innovations and developments performed by all organized and energetic incumbents and members of many generations are the final and concrete energizers for the fighting spirits and creative performances of generations of entrepreneurs and individual contributors who could creatively integrate, organize, and supervise all the existing human and material resources in order to make a better development under the vagaries of social and economic environments or even change the mentioned environments as advantageous as the innovators want them to be by large-scale and effective investing in science and technology, productivity, management and all sorts of crucial capabilities. And this is especially true for the large high scientific and technological enterprises’sustainable development. New scientific knowledge and technologies are muscles of iron and steel for the economy and society as well as the competitive capacities of the enterprises contrary to the house of cards. The large innovative high technological enterprises should and do have the innovative, organizing and managerial abilities to allocate, integrate and make full use of the tangible and intangible resources to further develop themselves and make appropriate contributions to the social and economic developments at the same time.In order to answer the question of how do the innovative enterprises creatively collect, integrate and organize all sorts of tangible and intangible resources from the circular-flow economy called by Joseph Schumpeter to implement a creative destruction for the leap-forward developments of both the whole economy and the enterprises themselves, a theoretical hypothesis of innovation mechanism of the innovative enterprises is gradually formed by studying the research results of many innovative economists, technological innovative economists, enterprise theory research scholars, management scholars, historians researching on developmental history of large enterprises and innovative enterprise theory scholars. However, verifying the opinions of these scholars and the theoretical hypothesis requires solid and rigorous positivistic analyses. Based on the analysis and studying of the innovative and creative development history of the General Electric Company from the founding era to the early years of1960s, This paper employs the intersection and synthesis of business history and innovative enterprise theories of the innovative economy for trying to analyze and verify the innovative enterprise theories and the hypothesis of innovative mechanism of the enterprise as well as some special characteristics of the innovative mechanism of the General Electric Company and the important contributions made by this large high technological innovative emprise to social and economic developments of the whole nation under the guidance of Marxist historical materialism and dialectical materialism.The General Electric Company combined and founded in1892by the Edison General Electric Company and the Thomson Houston Electric Company not only took over all kinds of superior resources of the electrical manufacturing industry at that era of time, but also inherited the innovation traditions formed by these two companies, which is being carried forward, enhanced and flourished by this combined leading company. It creatively founded the perfect and efficient centralized functional structure during the economic crisis at its outset time. The newly created functional structure remanded and reformed the deficient factors of the former two companies and at the same time made full use of the superior resources based on which the General Electric Company marched a new development era.As time passes by and the development of the company goes on, further technological and product innovations require advanced scientific knowledge and sustaining organized scientific research and technological development, which was one of the prime movers complemented by the innovation tradition and entrepreneurial spirits of the landmark establishment of the General Electric Company’s industrial research laboratory. This gave new capacity for the company’s sustainable development and competitive capability as well as new factor to its innovative mechanism.The marketing capability was largely enhanced, various businesses were rationally balanced by the execution of the "benign circle" diversified development strategy innovated and planned by company president Gerard Swope. During the World War Two and the postwar period to early years of1950s, the General Electric Company enjoyed another leap-forward development. The company scale was tremendously enlarged, businesses more diversified, productivity extremely enhanced and science and technology surprisingly advanced.Such huge new resources should be employed and exploited for the company’s own development and the advancement of social welfare and economic strength, which could largely be achieved by combing the expert and flexibility of the small enterprise and the advantageous resources of the large company. All these were the prime aim of the decentralization and divisionalization reform as well as the establishment in the General Electric Company of the professionalized management conducted and led by company president Ralph Cordiner in the early years of1950s. The reform have made the General Electric Company a more energetic dynamo of the country\s social and economic development and the strengthening of the national defense, what is more interesting and important, a West Point Campus for most brilliant and excellent professional company managersIn conclusion, from the analysis and studying of the innovative developmental history of the General Electric Company from the merger and founding time of the company to1960s, this paper concludes some common points between the general innovative enterprise theory and the innovative mechanism of the General Electric Company and some particular innovation characteristics of its own. The General Electric Company’s innovation mechanism is concluded from the studying made up to now as the coordination, cooperation and interactive development of the dynamic factors of scientific research and technological development capability, organizational structure, human resources, capital of money, marketing power and exterior relative profit groups’relationship, etc. led, controlled and supervised by an entrepreneurial strategic apex full of innovative spirits. This is enterprise innovation mechanism which insures and prompts the company’s long-term sustainable innovative development. The General Electric Company’s innovation mechanism is not built in a day. This mechanism would dynamically and creatively reform and change as the company develops in the new social and economic environment in the future and absorb new factors and characteristics. Anyway, the mission and purpose of this innovation mechanism would always be creating and integrating all sorts of innovative resource under the leadership of the entrepreneurial strategic apex and guided by the long-term developmental objectives in order to minimize the innovation investment risk and maximize the success of innovations and contributions to the country’s social and economic development and national competitive capabilities.
Keywords/Search Tags:The General Electric Company, enterprise innovation mechanism, scientific and technological development, organizational management, national development
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