Description
Book SynopsisThis innovative book analyses the role and importance of investment in knowledge and fixed capital as two distinct sources of technological change. It provides a balance to most of the recent literature on technological change, which focuses almost exclusively on R&D and intangible investment in innovation and technological assets. The author shows how innovative investment in fixed capital still represents a central part of innovation in firms.
The book begins by reviewing the major economic approaches to technology and innovation. It discusses the progressive shift from capital (embodied) investment to disembodied investment including R&D and design. Using one of the most extensive data sources, Rinaldo Evangelista empirically tests whether disembodied technological activities are more important than traditional investment in productive capital. Perhaps surprisingly, the evidence suggests that fixed productive capital emerges as the most relevant and widespread source of investment in innovation across firms and industrial sectors. The author concludes that even in high-tech industries embodied and disembodied technological activities are complementary rather than substitutive.
This book will be welcomed by those interested in technological and innovation studies, industrial organization and business strategy.
Trade Review'This book explores the circular relations between innovation and investments; in doing so it provides a new original bridge between the classical and post Keynesian traditions of analysis of investment and the neo-Schumpeterian approach to the knowledge based economy.'Table of ContentsContents: Introduction Part I: Investment in Knowledge and Machinery: Theory and Perspectives 1. Disembodied and Embodied Technological Change 2. Disembodied and Embodied Perspectives on Technological Change in the Economic Literature 3. Disembodied and Embodied Technological Change in the Innovation Literature 4. Embodied and Disembodied Perspectives on the Relationship Between Technological Change, Firm Size and Market Structure 5. Towards an Integrated Perspective on Technological Change and Industrial Structure Part II: Evidence from the Italian Industry 6. An Overview of Innovation Activities in Manufacturing and Services 7. Embodied and Disembodied Innovation Strategies and the Production Structure of Firms 8. Innovation Strategies and the Productive Structure of Firms 9. Innovative Patterns and Technological Regimes of Production 10. Embodied and Disembodied Patterns of Technological Change and Production Structure 11. Conclusions and Policy Implications Bibliography Index
