Patterns of Innovation

Abstract

In previous chapters the problem of how innovative activities are managed within firms has been analysed. Reference has been made to different strands of literature dealing with theories of the firm, with its implications for the analysis of technological innovation, and with the way in which R & D is managed within firms. The theories of the firm which have previously been examined differ considerably with respect to their fundamental assumptions but they all share as their primary concern the behaviour of the firm. In other words the firm and not technological innovation is their unit of observation. In this chapter the focus of attention will be shifted away from the firm in two different directions: first, greater attention will be paid to innovation as a process, in which therefore common features may be shared in different firms, industries, countries and so on, and second, the analysis will often be conducted at higher levels of aggregation, such as the industrial sector. In this sense the chapter will still be concerned with microeconomic issues, since it will still be dealing with the composition of the economic system rather than with its aggregated flows, but at a level of aggregation higher than that of the firm.