Dynamics of Innovation


Book Description

Best known as the leading historian of French railways, François Caron has also done significant work on topics as varied as electricity, water and steam power, the theory of innovation, the structure of enterprise, and other aspects of economic development in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In this volume, he brings together these different facets of his expertise in order to present a broad panorama of modern technology. Caron shows how artisanal know-how was adapted, expanded, and formalized during the three industrial revolutions that swept over Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States in a comprehensive analysis of this long, complex, and continuous historical process, leading up to the twenty-first century. Thus, he illustrates the increasingly fruitful interaction between technological and scientific knowledge in modern times.




Technology Dynamics


Book Description

While science and technology research, sources of funding, performance, incentives, and motivations for technology innovation activities are reasonably well understood by academics and policy makers, the complex process by which scientific results are exploited and transformed into new technologies through an innovation process is poorly documented and studied little. Technology Dynamics is dedicated to the complex activity of technology innovation, with the aim of describing how innovative ideas are generated and their transformation into new technologies. It is based on the idea that technology evolves continuously with time, is changed by innovations, and is characterized by a dynamic that is constituted by technological processes occurring in organizational structures, as well as during the use of technologies. The five chapters Discuss technological processes for innovation; Describe innovation within organizational structures; Offer information on interfacing of science and economic factors with technology; Suggest new statistical studies for innovation and new approaches for innovation policies; and Examine the contribution of technology dynamics to statistical studies and promotion of technology innovation. This book is aimed at managers developing strategies for technology innovation, researchers interested in exploiting scientific results for innovative ideas and new technologies, scholars and students studying the economics of innovation. The book would also of interest to private or public financiers of innovation and policy makers involved in economic growth strategy.




The Dynamics of Science and Technology


Book Description

The interrelations of science and technology as an object of study seem to have drawn the attention of a number of disciplines: the history of both science and technology, sociology, economics and economic history, and even the philosophy of science. The question that comes to mind is whether the phenomenon itself is new or if advances in the disciplines involved account for this novel interest, or, in fact, if both are intercon nected. When the editors set out to plan this volume, their more or less explicit conviction was that the relationship of science and technology did reveal a new configuration and that the disciplines concerned with 1tS analysis failed at least in part to deal with the change because of conceptual and methodological preconceptions. To say this does not imply a verdict on the insufficiency of one and the superiority of any other one disciplinary approach. Rather, the situation is much more complex. In economics, for example, the interest in the relationship between science and technology is deeply influenced by the theoretical problem of accounting for the factors of economic growth. The primary concern is with technology and the problem is whether the market induces technological advances or whether they induce new demands that explain the subsequent diffusion of new technologies. Science is generally considered to be an exogenous factor not directly subject to market forces and, therefore, appears to be of no interest.




Mapping the Dynamics of Science and Technology


Book Description

This book is a collection of works regarding the interactions of science, technology, and society.




Dynamics of Technological Change


Book Description

Technology is not an end in itself, but a way of satisfying human wants. It shows us how to solve the age-old economic problem of surviving and pros pering in a hard world. But to optimize the benefits of technological advance requires an understanding of how it happens. The purpose of this book is to provide some of that understanding. The subject is so enormous and so intertwined with every human activity that a small selection of it, and that from a special viewpoint, is inevitable. The selection of subject matter has been, of course, conditioned by what interests me and is somewhat heterogeneous. However, it is connected by two major themes. The first is that it emphasizes the dynamic nature of technology, in the sense that it must be approached as a process evolving in time that can often be described in quantitative terms. The second is that I have chosen topics that I believe are essential for a strategic sense of how to plan for, execute, and respond to technological change. These two themes complement each other because the strategic sense requires an appreciation of the dynamics and the dynamics naturally lead to a consideration of how to deal with technology so that it can be used to achieve human objectives. The unifying thought behind the book is that technological change has a systemic as well as an idiosyncratic aspect.




The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change


Book Description

" -Chris Coward, Director, Center for Internet Studies, University of Washington 'Peizer shares his considerable global experience and ICT expertise in a highly readable, illuminating book. A must read!" - Stefaan Verhulst, Chief of Research, Markle Foundation.




Business Dynamics in Information Technology


Book Description

Emerging business models, value configurations, and information technologies interact over time to create competitive advantage. Modern information technology has to be studied, understood, and applied along the time dimension of months and years, where changes are the rule. Such changes created by interactions between business elements and resources are very well suited for system dynamics modeling. Business Dynamics in Information Technology presents business-technology alignment processes, business-technology interaction processes, and business-technology decision processes, serving the purpose of helping the reader study information technology from a dynamic, rather than a static, perspective. By introducing two simple tools from system dynamic modeling - causal loops and reference modes - the dynamic perspective will become important to both students and practitioners in the future.




Technological Systems and Industrial Dynamics


Book Description

This volume consitutes a summary of several years' multi-disciplinary research by a group of Swedish researchers. The project 'Sweden's Technological Systems and Future Development Potential' was initiated by the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development (NUTEK) and has been carried out at the Department of Industrial Management and Economics at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, the Research Policy Institute at the University of Lund, the Industrial Institute for Economic and Social Research (lUI) in Stockholm, and the Department of Industrial Economics and Management at the Royal Insitute of Technology, Stockholm, under the direction of Bo Carlsson, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. The project group decided early on to focus fIrst on the technological system for factory automation - a relatively mature system of great importance to Swedish industry and in which Sweden has reached a leading position internationally - and then to shift the attention to other systems in various stages of development and with varying Swedish strength. The work on factory automation resulted in numerous papers and publications, summarized in a volume published in 1995 (Technological Systems and Economic Performance: The Case of Factory Automation, ed. Bo Carlsson. Dordrecht.




Localised Technological Change


Book Description

Pt. 1. The ingredients -- pt. 2. The governance of localised technological knowledge -- pt. 3. The introduction of localised technological change.




The Social Dynamics of Information and Communication Technology


Book Description

What shapes the role of Information and Communication Technologies in our everyday life? Despite the speed with which information and communication technologies such as the PC, mobile telephone and internet have found their way into society, there remains a good deal of debate surrounding their adoption and use. Through empirical studies covering a broad range of everyday life and work settings, this volume provides grounded insights into the social dynamics influencing how ICTs are both shaped and experienced. Specifically, the book examines the contributions of diverse disciplines to our understanding of these processes, the symbolic nature of technologies, the influence of design on the experience of ICTs, the role of users in influencing that design, the social constraints affecting the use of those technologies, and strategies for evaluating the social consequences of ICT innovations.