This study analyses the interrelations of production and use of technology, and how the use of technology coming from different sources has affected the competitiveness of firms in Finland in the 1980s and 1990s. Two applications of the industrial cluster concept are used in the analysis of production and use of technology. The most important sources of embodied technology in Finland are materials, the fabrication and the information clusters. The same clusters are important providers of spillovers. The study also analyses the R&D specialization, export performance and productivity of the industries. Export and R&D specialization seem often be related. National technology policies are concluded to remain important. The development and diffusion of technologies which have wide applications in many sectors should be promoted. Such technologies are produced particularly in the fabrication, materials and information technologies clusters.
