The Challenge of Innovation Policies

Abstract

In their works historians and social scientists analyse and compare man-made phenomena across time to arrive at logical and fact supported interpretations of the fundamental changes that may be underway within societies. This intellectual process facilitates our own understanding of such changes. An example would be the incremental diffusion of the Industrial Revolution (IR), which started in the second half of the 19th century and spread from the core countries of Europe and North America to southern Europe and across the world. This revolution was described and explained by its power to transform traditional societies and economies through the new mass production of goods processes, in contrast to the preceding period of land based wealth production (Sabel and Zeitlin, 1985; Handlin and Burchard, 1967; Toynbee, 1956). Economists, in particular, have focused their investigations on the transformative powers of the IR and on the growth it has generated by permitting countries to leverage their competitive advantages in terms of access to abundant natural resources and low cost labour.