Description
Book SynopsisThe story of the RCA VideoDisc is a rare inside look at a company and the way it conducts the complex process of science-based innovation. For nearly fifty years the RCA name was synonymous with innovation in the industries it helped to build - radio and television broadcasting and manufacturing, and electronics. This book, first published in 1986, presents an absorbing account of how RCA shaped a sophisticated consumer electronics technology in a research and development effort that spanned fifteen years. We see how the company's history, its structure, its technical capability, and its competition all influenced the choices that were made in moving VideoDisc from laboratory to development group to market, and ultimately to withdrawal from the marketplace. Graham's book seeks to examine the nature of science-based innovation as a management problem. It also describes the complex workings of a large corporate R&D organization and the relationship that exists between it and the other co
Trade Review"The history she presents is essentially a tale of management. Yet it will be valuable to historians of technology in heightening our sensitivity to corporate policies and politics that affect the conduct of industrial R&D." Technology and Culture
"Margaret Graham offers an absorbing insider account of a technological innovation that went wrong." The Philadelphia Inquirer
"The history she presents is essentially a tale of management. Yet it will be valuable to historians of technology in heightening our sensitivity to corporate policies and politics that affect the conduct of industrial R&D." Technology and Culture
Table of ContentsEditors' preface; Preface and acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Selectavision VideoDisc: opportunity and risk; 2. David Sarnoff: industrial entrepreneur; 3. Research as prime mover; 4. Laboratory as entrepreneur: videoplayer research begins; 5. Selectavision Holotape: RCA's professional innovation; 6. Everything ventured; 7. All in the family; 8. VideoDisc in the public eye; 9. RCA's 'Manhattan Project'; 10. On the market; 11. Managing R&D: lessons from RCA; Appendix; Notes; Index.
