Title:
The Role of Relational Agents in Regional Economic Evolution and Resilience: The Case of Robotics Systems Integrators
The Role of Relational Agents in Regional Economic Evolution and Resilience: The Case of Robotics Systems Integrators
Author(s)
Kraft, Benjamin Robert
Advisor(s)
Leigh, Nancey Greene
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Abstract
This dissertation addresses the question of how legacy industrial regions—those that have historically relied on manufacturing, resource extraction, or agriculture—can regain or sustain competitiveness in a global, service-dominant, and digitally automated economy. This question is examined through the lens of a small industry that is geographically concentrated in these regions and provides services directly related to material production.
The industry is called robotics systems integration. It consists of engineering consultants and service providers that design and implement robotic automation systems for manufacturers.
Data was collected through a survey and interviews of robotics systems integrators. The analysis in the dissertation is organized around four main themes. They are: integrators’ geography, their role and position in the robotics supply chain, their ability to absorb and propagate a type of evolutionary information called related variety, and their human capital needs and practices.
Results suggest that integrators are agents for facilitating the evolutionary transfer of information within and between regional industrial ecosystems, and across multiple technologies. Key pathways for this transfer are 1) interactions with customers and suppliers, and 2) human capital practices that prioritize a “synthetic” sensibility over a codified set of skills. This synthetic sensibility is characterized by a predilection towards solving practical physical, material, and spatial problems of the kind often presented when working with industrial automation systems.
The dissertation concludes with a discussion of how these findings may be applied to further study of legacy industrial regions, as well as policies and strategies to promote economic resilience and path renewal.
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Date Issued
2020-04-20
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Resource Subtype
Dissertation