Fabio Arcangeli, Paul David, Frank Engelman, Christopher Freeman, Massimo Moggi, Richard Nelson, Luigi Orsenigo, Nathan Rosenberg, Michele Salvati, G. N. von Tunzelman, two anonymous referees, and the participants at the meeting of the Committee on Distribution, Growth, and Technical Progress of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), Rome, November 16, 1985, have helped with various redraftings. A particularly grateful acknowledgment is for the insightful and patient help of Moses Abramovitz. This work has been undertaken at the Science Policy Research Unit (SPRU), University of Sussex, as part of the research program of the Designated Research Centre, sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Earlier support to the research that led to this paper by the Italian National Research Council (CNR) is also gratefully acknowledged. The statistical research has been undertaken with the assistance of Stephano Brioschi, Ilaria Fornari, and Giovannu Prennushi.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2726526

Sources, Procedures, and Microeconomic Effects of Innovation

Reviews indicate that the dominant perspective in the diffusion of innovation literature contains proinnovation biases which suggest that innovations and the diffusion of innovations will benefit adopters. As a result, it is difficult to either address or begin answering the questions: when and how do technically inefficient innovations diffuse? or when and how are technically efficient innovations rejected? This article has two goals: (1) to develop a typology that focuses attention on three less dominant perspectives that can be used to guide research on these questions and (2) to suggest how organizational scientists can develop more encompassing theories of innovation diffusion and rejection by using the theoretical tensions that exist between the dominant perspective and the three perspectives developed in this article. These resolutions are important because they indicate that processes which prompt the adoption of efficient innovations may coexist with processes that prompt the adoption of ineffici...

Managerial Fads and Fashions: The Diffusion and Rejection of Innovations

In this paper we review the extant innovation research from three fields—economics, organizational sociology and technology management—in order to find points at which the fields' approaches and assumptions overlap. By comparing research methods and approaches along three dimensions, stage of adoption, level of analysis, and type of innovation, we found, firstly, that studies from the three fields can be re-mapped into five more specific groups. We then illustrate how research from different groups can be cross-fertilized to help management of innovation in organizations. The paper suggests that knowing the ways in which different groups of studies differ from each other may lead to a more accurate understanding of the relative value of innovation research from each group, for both theorists and managers.

A review of innovation research in economics, sociology and technology management

The authors provide an empirical test of the effects of competition on the adoption of technological innovations by organizations. They follow the conceptualization developed in the model they prop...

Technology Diffusion: An Empirical Test of Competitive Effects:

We all know of innovations which either made their creators a fortune or which led to their downfall. It is easy to retrospectively explain success as a stroke of genius or failure as a blatant mistake. Easy in retrospect…but what about innovation in the making? How does the innovator navigate the pitfalls which threaten him?

The key to success in innovation part i: the art of interessement

In this first of two papers, the nature of productivity changes and their measurement are examined. Various widespread misconceptions of such changes and of the means of measurement are discussed. The multiple requirements of a practical productivity analysis system are outlined, and an analytic framework which meets these requirements is presented. Samples are provided of empirical findings which have resulted from the use of this framework. The second paper will provide a discussion of the determinants of change in productivity relationships and problems encountered and experiments used in productivity measurement. A guide to analysis and interpretation is provided.

Practical Productivity Analysis for Management: Part I. Analytic Framework

New Perspectives on Cost Theory and Empirical Findings

In Part I, a framework for the analysis and measurement of productivity was provided, along with a sample of some empirical findings obtained with this framework. In this paper, the array of factors which must be examined in order to account for the observed findings is reviewed. Problems encountered in the application of this framework in different kinds of plants are discussed, including problems with the development of managerial ability to interpret the results of the analysis.

Practical Productivity Analysis for Management: Part II. Measurement and Interpretation

(1979). Advancing the Technological Capabilities of U.S. Industries. Research Management: Vol. 22, No. 1, pp. 37-41.

Advancing the Technological Capabilities of U.S. Industries

After calling attention to some misleading conceptions of the industrial sectors facing increasing challenges from abroad, the analysis highlights the primary sources of recent shortcomings in the competitiveness of major industries in the US and in some other long industrialized economies. Suggestions are then offered concerning potential corrective policies available to national governments, to managements, to trade unions and to universities as well. Finally, the need for long term perspectives in formulating and implementing such constructive programs is emphasized along with the need to integrate them with other major programs for promoting the national welfare.

Bela Gold

Papers

Practical Productivity Analysis for Management: Part I. Analytic Framework

New Perspectives on Cost Theory and Empirical Findings

Practical Productivity Analysis for Management: Part II. Measurement and Interpretation

Advancing the Technological Capabilities of U.S. Industries

Strengthening the technological capabilities of domestic industries: Pressures, deterrents and policy alternatives☆