Tag: Susan Helper

Value Migration and Industry 4.0: Theory, Field Evidence, and Propositions

Susan Helper, Raphael Martins, Robert Seamans

This paper offers several predictions about how Industry 4.0 – the coordinated use of robots, sensors, AI, and other digitally-enabled technologies in manufacturing – will affect which firms and occupations capture value in manufacturing. Using in-depth interviews with manufacturers that are part of the automotive value chain, the authors find that value migration within firms likely affects whether and how value migration occurs across firms.

Management Practices, Relational Contracts, and the Decline of General Motors

Susan Helper with Rebecca Henderson

General Motors was once regarded as the best-managed and most successful firm in the world. However, between 1980 and 2009, GM’s US market share fell from 46 to 20 percent, and in 2009 the firm went bankrupt. We suggest that GM’s experience may have important implications for our understanding of the role of management in the modern, knowledge-based firm.