IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joevec/v14y2004i1p69-84.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The economic implications of exaptation

Author

Listed:
  • Nicholas Dew
  • S. Sarasvathy
  • S. Venkataraman

Abstract

Accounts of economic change recognize that markets create selective pressures for the adaptation of technologies in the direction of customer needs and production efficiencies. However, non-adaptational bases for technological change are rarely highlighted, despite their pervasiveness in the history of technical and economic change. In this paper the concept of exaptation -a feature co-opted for its present role from some other origin - is proposed as a characteristic element of technological change, and an important mechanism by which new markets for products and services are created by entrepreneurs. Exaptation is a missing but central concept linking the evolution of technology with the entrepreneurial creation of new markets and the concept of Knightian uncertainty. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2004

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Dew & S. Sarasvathy & S. Venkataraman, 2004. "The economic implications of exaptation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 69-84, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joevec:v:14:y:2004:i:1:p:69-84
    DOI: 10.1007/s00191-003-0180-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00191-003-0180-x
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00191-003-0180-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:joevec:v:14:y:2004:i:1:p:69-84. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.