Our interdisciplinary teams observe, analyze, debate and report on strategic, technological, and organizational developments in a broad range of industries and examine the implications for society and the global economy. The IPC often convenes key actors from the public, private and non-profit sectors to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing firms, industries, regions and countries in an increasingly dynamic, competitive, and global economy.
The IPC was founded in 1992 as one of a network of Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Industry Study Centers. The center was created to continue the research of the MIT Commission on Industrial Productivity, whose best-selling report, Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge (MIT Press, 1989), developed a blueprint for upgrading the productivity performance of the U.S. manufacturing sector. Later interdisciplinary IPC projects have included:
major studies of the economic future of Hong Kong and Taiwan
Made By Hong Kong (1997)
Global Taiwan (2005)
research projects on the globalization of industry
How We Compete: What Companies Around the World are Doing to Make it in Today’s Global Economy (2005)
design and new product development
Innovation—The Missing Dimension (2004)
the university role in innovation-led regional economic growth
Local Innovation Systems (LIS) Project (2005)
IPC researchers have also participated in two major MIT energy technology policy studies, The Future of Nuclear Power (2003) and The Future of Coal (2007), and are currently working on the Energy Innovation Project, which will be completed in 2011.