The diffusion of mature technologies

technologies more than ten years ago: our first report on this subject was published in 1969'" followed by a major book.'2' The purpose of the earlier studies was to analyse the introduction and diffusion of major postwar process innovations in several industrial countries, the factors which facilitate or hinder the adoption of the then new techniques, the pattern of diffusion and the influences to which it is subject. The analysis was based on the situation at the end of the 1960s. Since then the processes, which were then relatively new, have matured. In 1982 we started a new project in order to assess and analyse their diffu sion in a later phase.'3' The detailed report on the findings of this new work will be published early in 1984; this article describes some of the main points in the forthcoming Occasional Paper.'4'