The Bell System: A Model of Corporate Innovation and Public Service
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The United States is in the midst of a scientific slowdown, with private funds for research and development set to outpace federal investment for the first time since WWII. Federal funding for basic research has been stagnant for the past twenty years, while accompanying legislation has incentivized academics to leave the university and commercialize their work in industry. This coincides with a trend in corporate spending, marked by a focus on development rather than research. As a result, many fear that a persistent drought in US-based innovation is inevitable. In addition, studies show that as science becomes more specialized, research projects become more costly, and in turn scientific and technological progress become more difficult to attain. This comes during a period in which corporate profits and company valuations have reached all-time highs, and yet there is tremendous income inequality, and the public welfare is suffering in various ways. An analysis of the historically successful case of AT&T and their industrial research operation, the Bell Laboratories, illuminates the factors that make consistent innovation, corporate success, and public service possible in the private sector. Moreover, the example of Bell Laboratories displays what political, regulatory and economic conditions enable this combination of private and public interests to prosper. By placing our current challenges in their historical framework, this thesis hopes to shed light on an exit path from our current innovation crisis, and urge people to realize that many aspects of ‘how things are done’ are in fact entirely new and a departure from historical precedents.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | [ca. January 2019 - June 1, 2019] |
| Date modified | September 19, 2022 |
| Publication date | November 30, 2021 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Korberg, Gil |
|---|---|
| Thesis advisor | Pande, Vijay |
Subjects
| Subject | Science Technology and Society |
|---|---|
| Subject | Bell Laboratories |
| Subject | AT&T |
| Subject | Innovation |
| Subject | Monopoly |
| Subject | Antitrust |
| Subject | Basic Science |
| Subject | Stanford University |
| Subject | Applied Science |
| Genre | Text |
| Genre | Thesis |
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Preferred citation
- Preferred citation
- Kornberg, Gil. (2019). The Bell System: A Model of Corporate Innovation and Public Service. Unpublished Honors Thesis. Stanford University, Stanford CA.
Collection
Stanford University, Program in Science, Technology and Society, Honors Theses
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- gilk@stanford.edu
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