Making in America ─ From Innovation to Market

America is the world leader in innovation, but many of the innovative ideas that arehatched in American start-ups, labs, and companies end up going abroad to reach commercial scale.Apple, the superstar of innovation, locates its production in China (yet still reaps most of itsprofits in the United States). When innovation does not find the capital, skills, and expertise itneeds to come to market in the United States, what does it mean for economic growth and jobcreation? Inspired by the MIT Made in America project of the 1980s, Making inAmerica brings experts from across MIT to focus on a critical problem for thecountry.

MIT scientists, engineers, social scientists, and management expertsvisited more than 250 firms in the United States, Germany, and China. In companies acrossAmerica--from big defense contractors to small machine shops and new technology startups--theseexperts tried to learn how we can rebuild the industrial landscape to sustain an innovative economy.At each stop, they asked this basic question: "When you have a new idea, how do you get it intothe market?" They found gaping holes and missing pieces in the industrial ecosystem. Criticalstrengths and capabilities that once helped bring new enterprises to life have disappeared:production capacity; small and medium-size suppliers; spillovers of research, training, and newtechnology from big corporations. ( Production in the Innovation Economy, alsopublished by the MIT Press in 2013, describes this research.)

Even in anInternet-connected world, proximity to innovation and users matters for industry. Making inAmerica describes ways to strengthen this connection, including public-privatecollaborations, new government-initiated manufacturing innovation institutes, and industry-communitycollege projects. If we can learn from these ongoing experiments in linking innovation toproduction, American manufacturing could have a renaissance.

Suzanne Berger is Raphael Dorman-Helen Starbuck Professor of Political Science and, together with Institute Professor Phillip Sharp, chairs MIT's Production in the Innovation Economy project. She is the author of How We Compete: What Companies Around the World Are Doing to Make It in the Global Economy and other books.