New Data on the Diffusion of the Basic Oxygen Furnace in the U. S. and Japan
研究引入新的微观数据，比较美国和日本钢铁企业在碱性氧气转炉（BOF）技术尚未被普遍认可为优于平炉时的采用倾向，以及在BOF被公认为更优后淘汰平炉的激进程度，得出与基于总量数据不同的结论。
INTERNATIONAL differences in the diffusion of the basic oxygen furnace (BOF) have been examined in numerous studies. The reasons for this interest are clear. BOFs are cheaper to build than open hearths, produce steel at lower cost, and better lend themselves to automation and pollution control. Thus, within two decades of the BOF's introduction by a small Austrian steelmaker in 1952, it had supplanted the open hearth as the world's most widely used steelmaking process. A question for research has been whether a slowness to adopt the BOF and other new technologies may have been a factor in the decline of the U.S. steel industry. Widely differing conclusions have been reached. Most analyses, however, have been based on aggregate production statistics. 1 The purpose of this study is to introduce new, disaggregated data to compare the adoption of the BOF by the U.S. and Japanese steel industries. Our data directly compare the number of times the BOF was chosen over the open hearth when firms in the two countries were expanding steelmaking capacity. These data lead to conclusions that differ from those based on aggregate data. We are particularly concerned with two issues: How did the U.S. and Japanese steel industries compare in their propensity to use the BOF when this technology was not yet universally recognized as being superior to the open hearth? And: Which nation's industry was more aggressive in replacing open hearth capacity with BOF when the BOF was known to be superior? An answer to the first question could reflect managerial performance in quickly recognizing and exploiting new technology. An answer to the second could indicate performance in replacing obsolete equipment.