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A Brief Summary of the HTI Work at Georgia Tech

Indicator development work at Georgia Tech has proceeded in phases:

The first phase, begun in 1987, generated indicators of national capabilities to produce high technology products suitable for export. We developed a conceptual model of the processes by which industrializing nations gain access to external technology and technical information, absorb that technology/information effectively, and institutionalize a science-based development and manufacturing capability leading to export-led growth in high technology products. Four "input," or leading, indicators of a nation's future capacity (15-year time horizon) to compete in international markets in high technology products were developed, as were three "output" indicators of a nation's current international competitiveness. During this first phase, the indicators were applied to data for twenty countries representing a range of regions and extent of industrialization.

The second phase (1989-1992) used data on an expanded set of 28 countries to examine in detail the indicators' reliability and validity. The conceptual model and the results of this phase are summarized in J.D. Roessner, A.L. Porter, and H. Xu, "National Capacities to Absorb and Institutionalize External Science and Technology," Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Vol. 4, No. 2 (1992).

The third phase of HTI (1992-2003) refined formulas for the seven indicators, applied them empirically, tested the value of the indicators for policy and scholarly purposes, and assessed the processes of data collection and verification. HTI were prepared for 1996, 1999, and 2003 following closely the format developed for 1993. The results from this phase were presented in several articles:

  • Roessner, J.D., Porter, A.L., Newman, N.C., and Cauffiel, D., "Anticipating the Future High-Tech Competitiveness of Nations: Indicators for Twenty-Eight Countries," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Vol. 51, No. 1, p. 133-149, 1996
  • Porter, A.L., Roessner, J.D., Newman, N.C., and Cauffiel, D., "Indicators of High-Tech Competitiveness of 28 Countries," International Journal of Technology Management, Vol. 12, No.1, p.1-32, 1996
  • Porter, A.L., Roessner, J.D., Jin, X-Y., and Newman, N.C., "Changes in National Technological Competitiveness: 1990-93-96-99", Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 477-496, 2001.
  • Porter, A.L., Roessner, J.D., Jin, X-Y., and Newman, N.C., "Measuring National 'Emerging Technology' Capabilities," Science and Public Policy, 2002, Vol. 29, No. 3, p. 189-200, 2002.

NSF reported the third phase HTI findings in a number of publications:

  • Science & Engineering Indicators -- 1993 (National Science Board, Washington, DC, U.S. Government Printing Office, NSF 93-1, p. 186-189
  • Asia ’s New High-Tech Competitors (NSF 95-309, 1995), a special report of NSF’s Science Resources Studies Division
  • Science & Engineering Indicators --1998 (National Science Board, Washington , DC , U.S. Government Printing Office), p. 6-33 -- 6-37, Appendix table 6-23
  • Science & Engineering Indicators -- 2002 (National Science Board, Washington , DC , U.S. Government Printing Office, and NSF website), section on "New High-Technology Exporters” and Appendix Table 6-8.
  • Science & Engineering Indicators -- 2004 (National Science Board, Washington , DC , U.S. Government Printing Office, and NSF website), section on "New High-Technology Exporters” and Appendix Tables 6-5 and 6-6.

Additional papers explore implications of the indicators. Many of these, along with the HTI Summaries themselves, are posted at the website: http://www.tpac.gatech.edu [both under "High Tech Indicators" and under "Papers"]. We note some more recent papers: 

  • Porter, A.L., Roessner, J.D., Newman, N.C., Jin, X-Y., and Kongthon, A., High Tech Indicators: Who's Gaining?, Technology Exports, Vol. VI, No. 3, Jan-Mar, 2004, p. 1-6.
  • Newman, N.C., Porter, A.L., Roessner, J.D., Kongthon, A., and Jin, X-Y. Differences Over a Decade: High Tech Capabilities and Competitive Performance of 28 Nations, Science & Technology Indicators Conference, Leiden, The Netherlands, 2004.
  • Porter, A.L., Jin, X-Y, Newman, N.C., Johnson, D.M., and Roessner, J.D., High Tech Competitiveness: Spotlight on Asia, Journal of Management and Social Sciences, to appear.

Initiation of the fourth phase began as the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) requested that Georgia Tech enhance the indicators in several ways:

  • broaden the scope beyond its previous technology-based manufactured products focus to capture "Information Economy" advanced services as well;
  • expand the statistical measures that are incorporated in the indicators;
  • explore whether statistical measures could supplant expert-opinion-based measures.
  • [and see] Porter, A., Roessner, D., Newman, N. Kongthon, A., and Jin, X-Y., Review and Revision of High Tech Indicators 2003, Report to the Science Indicators Unit, National Science Foundation (Contract D020024), 2004.

This began with HTI-03 on a preliminary basis and in HTI-05 on an exploratory basis. HTI-07 solidifies the statistics-only HTI, while continuing the traditional HTI series for comparison.

Please visit our website: http://www.tpac.gatech.edu  (click "High Tech Indicators") for more detailed recent information.

 

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