Principal Findings, Policy Implications and Research Agenda

Abstract

The Economics of Innovation emerged as an independent field of investigation at the beginning of the last century as has been described by Antonelli 2003, Dosi 1988, Dosi 2000, Rosenberg 1982, Stonemen 1995, and von Tunzelmann 1995. Then, very quickly, two specializations within, or approaches to, the subject emerged creating distinct subfields, each with its own theoretical road map. The first approach emphasizes the innovation itself, i.e., the technology, and the second focuses on the innovator, usually a firm. Consequently, in the first approach, the innovation is the unit of analysis while, in the second, the firm is the central unit of investigation. In the first of these two approaches the analysis concerns how a new technology emerges, is adopted, developed, diffused, and incrementally improved over time. Technological trajectories, paradigm shifts (Dosi, 1982), technological systems (Carlson, 1997), and related concepts provide the basis for the models and schemes of analysis in this approach. The accent is placed on the accumulation of technological change along a trajectory or on the systemic interactions between technologies. Most innovation diffusion models, in particular those based on epidemic schemes, fall into this first category.