A hypothesis is set out to account for the poor innovative performance of British engineering industries by contrast both with their rivals in other advanced countries, and with the British 'chemistry-based' industries. Engineering product innovation demands a high degree of interfunctional and...

The effective corporate governance of innovating firms calls for a capacity to deal with novelty, visibility and appropriability. Such capacities are found to vary among sectors, in terms of industry-specific expertise, firm-specific perceptiveness, and (sometimes) stakeholder enfranchisement....