This volume consitutes a summary of several years' multi-disciplinary research by a group of Swedish researchers. The project 'Sweden's Technological Systems and Future Development Potential' was initiated by the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK) and has been carried out at the Department of Industrial Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, the Research Policy Institute at the University of Lund, the Industrial Institute for Economic and Social Research (lUI) in Stockholm, and the Department of Industrial Economics and Management at the Royal Insitute of Technology, Stockholm, under the direction of Bo Carlsson, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The project group decided early on to focus fIrst on the technological system for factory automation - a relatively mature system of great importance to Swedish industry and in which Sweden has reached a leading position internationally - and then to shift the attention to other systems in various stages of development and with varying Swedish strength. The work on factory automation resulted in numerous papers and publications, summarized in a volume published in 1995 (Technological Systems and Economic Performance: The Case of Factory Automation, ed. Bo Carlsson. Dordrecht.

1. Introduction.- 2. Sweden's Technological Profile.- 3. The Technological System for Factory Automation.- 4. Sweden's Technological System for Electronics and Computer Technology.- 5. The Development of Beta Blockers at Astra-Hässle and the Technological System of the Swedish Pharmaceutical Industry.- 6. The Pharmaceutical and Biotechnological Competence Bloc and the Development of Losec.- 7. Mapping the Cognitive and Institutional Structures of an Evolving Advanced-Materials Field: The Case of Powder Technology.- 8. General Purpose Technologies, Industrial Competence and Economic Growth - with Emphasis on the Diffusion of Advanced Methods of Integrated Production.- 9. Micro-Macro Simulation of Technological Systems: Economic Effects of Spillovers.- 10. Four Technological Systems: What Have We Learned?.- 11. In Search of Useful Public Policies: Key Lessons and Issues for Policy Makers.- Author Index.