IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/joevec/v24y2014i2p357-376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Isolation and technological innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Hall
  • Robert Wylie

Abstract

Despite its importance as a formative influence in evolutionary biology, the notion of isolation has received relatively little attention in evolutionary economics and its application to technological innovation. This paper makes the case that isolation, in many guises, is a pervasive and permanent feature of the economic landscape and that its implications for technological innovation deserve further analysis. Isolation and potential implications for innovation are discussed in the early part of the paper and case studies of two military innovations are then used to illustrate the value of explicitly recognising various forms of isolation in explaining observed aspects of innovation process and outcomes. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Hall & Robert Wylie, 2014. "Isolation and technological innovation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 357-376, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:joevec:v:24:y:2014:i:2:p:357-376
    DOI: 10.1007/s00191-014-0347-7
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s00191-014-0347-7
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s00191-014-0347-7?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Georgy Levit & Uwe Hossfeld & Ulrich Witt, 2011. "Can Darwinism be “Generalized” and of what use would this be?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 545-562, October.
    2. Giovanni Dosi & Richard R. Nelson, 2000. "An Introduction to Evolutionary Theories in Economics," Chapters, in: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics, chapter 11, pages 327-346, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Nooteboom, Bart & Van Haverbeke, Wim & Duysters, Geert & Gilsing, Victor & van den Oord, Ad, 2007. "Optimal cognitive distance and absorptive capacity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1016-1034, September.
    4. Ruttan, Vernon W., 2006. "Is War Necessary for Economic Growth?: Military Procurement and Technology Development," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195188042.
    5. Genus, Audley & Coles, Anne-Marie, 2008. "Rethinking the multi-level perspective of technological transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(9), pages 1436-1445, October.
    6. Johan Schot & Frank Geels, 2007. "Niches in evolutionary theories of technical change," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 605-622, October.
    7. Lopolito, A. & Morone, P. & Taylor, R., 2013. "Emerging innovation niches: An agent based model," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(6), pages 1225-1238.
    8. Bryn Battersby, 2007. "Does distance matter?: The effect of geographic isolation on productivity levels," OECD Economic Studies, OECD Publishing, vol. 2006(1), pages 205-225.
    9. Levinthal, Daniel A, 1998. "The Slow Pace of Rapid Technological Change: Gradualism and Punctuation in Technological Change," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 7(2), pages 217-247, June.
    10. Nicholas Dew & S. Sarasvathy & S. Venkataraman, 2004. "The economic implications of exaptation," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 69-84, January.
    11. Bryn Battersby & Robert Ewing, 2005. "International Trade Performance: The Gravity of Australia's Remoteness," Treasury Working Papers 2005-03, The Treasury, Australian Government, revised Jun 2005.
    12. Stephen Redding & Anthony J. Venables, 2002. "The Economics of Isolation and Distance," Nordic Journal of Political Economy, Nordic Journal of Political Economy, vol. 28, pages 93-108.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhamed Kudic & Wilfried Ehrenfeld & Toralf Pusch, 2015. "On the trail of core–periphery patterns in innovation networks: measurements and new empirical findings from the German laser industry," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 55(1), pages 187-220, October.
    2. Kudic, Muhamed & Ehrenfeld, Wilfried & Pusch, Toralf, 2015. "Isolation and Innovation – Two Contradictory Concepts? Explorative Findings from the German Laser Industry," IWH Discussion Papers 1/2015, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).
    3. Areti Gkypali & Kostas Kounetas & Kostas Tsekouras, 2019. "European countries’ competitiveness and productive performance evolution: unraveling the complexity in a heterogeneity context," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 29(2), pages 665-695, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Geels, Frank W., 2020. "Micro-foundations of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions: Developing a multi-dimensional model of agency through crossovers between social constructivism, evolutionary economics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    2. Geels, Frank W., 2010. "Ontologies, socio-technical transitions (to sustainability), and the multi-level perspective," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 495-510, May.
    3. Papachristos, George & Papadonikolaki, Eleni & Morgan, Bethan, 2024. "Projects as a speciation and aggregation mechanism in transitions: Bridging project management and transitions research in the digitalization of UK architecture, engineering, and construction industry," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    4. Sarpong, David & Dong, Shi & Appiah, Gloria, 2016. "‘Vinyl never say die’: The re-incarnation, adoption and diffusion of retro-technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 109-118.
    5. Ernest Miguelez & Andrea Morrison, 2023. "Migrant inventors as agents of technological change," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(2), pages 669-692, April.
    6. Dew, Nicholas & Read, Stuart & Sarasvathy, Saras D. & Wiltbank, Robert, 2008. "Outlines of a behavioral theory of the entrepreneurial firm," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 37-59, April.
    7. Walrave, Bob & Talmar, Madis & Podoynitsyna, Ksenia S. & Romme, A. Georges L. & Verbong, Geert P.J., 2018. "A multi-level perspective on innovation ecosystems for path-breaking innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 103-113.
    8. Ansell, Christopher K. & Bartenberger, Martin, 2016. "Varieties of experimentalism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 64-73.
    9. Paolo Zeppini & Koen Frenken & Roland Kupers, 2013. "The complexity of transitions," Working Papers 13-04, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Mar 2013.
    10. Narayanamurti, Venkatesh & Tsao, Jeffrey Y., 2024. "How technoscientific knowledge advances: A Bell-Labs-inspired architecture," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    11. Nylund, Petra A. & Amores-Bravo, Xavier & Ferràs-Hernández, Xavier & Brem, Alexander, 2023. "Crisis as a catalyst of idle innovation ecosystems: Evidence from ecosystem exaptation of a water partnership," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    12. Svensson, Oscar & Nikoleris, Alexandra, 2018. "Structure reconsidered: Towards new foundations of explanatory transitions theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 462-473.
    13. Hans Haan, 2008. "The dynamics of functioning investigating societal transitions with partial differential equations," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 14(4), pages 302-319, December.
    14. Vanessa Oltra, 2008. "Environmental innovation and industrial dynamics: the contributions of evolutionary economics," Post-Print hal-00391493, HAL.
    15. Darío Vázquez, 2020. "Variety patterns in defense and health technological systems: evidence from international trade data," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 949-988, September.
    16. Papachristos, George, 2017. "Diversity in technology competition: The link between platforms and sociotechnical transitions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 291-306.
    17. Giovanni Bonifati, 2015. "The implications of the concept of exaptation for a theory of economic change," Department of Economics 0076, University of Modena and Reggio E., Faculty of Economics "Marco Biagi".
    18. Magnusson, Thomas & Berggren, Christian, 2018. "Competing innovation systems and the need for redeployment in sustainability transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 217-230.
    19. Mariana Mazzucato, 2015. "From Market Fixing to Market-Creating: A New Framework for Economic Policy," SPRU Working Paper Series 2015-25, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    20. Walrave, Bob & Raven, Rob, 2016. "Modelling the dynamics of technological innovation systems," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(9), pages 1833-1844.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Isolation; Innovation; Evolution; Technology; Defence; O330;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:24:y:2014:i:2:p:357-376. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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.