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An introductory overview of innovation studies

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  • Rossi, Federica

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide a broad overview of the field of innovation studies. We focus on the the economics and sociology of innovation, which we can define as the study of the dynamic processes of generation, development, adoption ad diffusion of innovations in the economic and social system, as well as the characteristics of such processes and their effects on society and the economy. In order to present the many, complex and sometimes overlapping strands of research on innovation, we have chosen a disciplinary criterion. We have therefore identified several different theoretical perspectives on innovation and within each one we have tried to unravel the main issues that are being investigated. However, any attempt to categorise and streamline such a complex topic does, to some exent, introduce arbitrary distinctions in the analysis. In the last section, we explicitly focus on trying to re-estabilish some connections between different perspectives, and we try to uncover some general trends in innovation studies.

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  • Rossi, Federica, 2002. "An introductory overview of innovation studies," MPRA Paper 9106, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised Jun 2008.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:9106
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    Cited by:

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    2. Lepratte, Leandro, 2011. "Sistemas sociotécnicos, innovación y desarrollo [Sociotechnical systems, innovation and development]," MPRA Paper 33559, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Dino Falaschetti, 2008. "Can Lobbying Prevent Anticompetitive Outcomes? Evidence On Consumer Monopsony In Telecommunications," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 1065-1096.
    4. Jiancheng Guan & Kairui Zuo, 2014. "A cross-country comparison of innovation efficiency," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 100(2), pages 541-575, August.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    innovation; innovation theories; economics of innovation; sociology of science and technology;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • O31 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Innovation and Invention: Processes and Incentives

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