Innovation, diffusion and catching up in the fifth long wave

Does the new technological paradigm based on information and communication technologies (ICTs) create new windows of opportunity or further obstacles for catching up countries? The paper discusses this question by taking neo-Schumpeterian long wave theory as the basic framework of analysis. According to this approach, the current rapid diffusion of the ICT-based paradigm marks the initial phase of a fifth long wave period. The first part of the paper focuses on the major changes that characterize the techno-economic system in the fifth long wave, and points out that the new paradigm is leading to several new opportunities for developing economies. If public policies will actively foster the development process by rapidly investing in the new technologies and in the related infrastructures and skills, these new opportunities will indeed be successfully exploited. The second part of the paper shifts the focus to the socio-institutional system, and argues that institutional changes driven by some major actors in the industrialized world are creating a new international regime where the scope and the resources available for State interventions are significantly reduced. The paper concludes by suggesting the existence of a temporary mismatch between the techno-economic and the socio-institutional system, which makes the catching up process more difficult for large parts of the developing world.Innovation; ICTs; catching up; long waves; global governance

Technical Change and Economic Growth: Some Lessons from Secular Patterns and Some Conjectures on the Current Impact of ICT Technology

This paper discusses the link between patterns of technological change and economic development taking an evolutionary perspective. We argue that the modes and timing of such coupled dynamics are deeply influenced by the emergence of new techno-economic paradigms or regimes. ICT-based technologies are the drivers of the current paradigm, which, we show, is still at an early stage of diffusion, particularly for developing countries. Building from historical evidence, we argue that catching up of developing countries critically depends on their ability to master the technology behind the dominant technoeconomic paradigm. We then discuss threats and opportunities related to a possible ICTbased development path.Technical change, Economic Growth, ICT

Sustainable Prosperity in the New Economy?: Business Organization and High-Tech Employment in the United States

Lazonick explores the origins of the new era of employment insecurity and income inequality, and considers what governments, businesses, and individuals can do about it. He also asks whether the United States can refashion its high-tech business model to generate stable and equitable economic growth.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1029/thumbnail.jp

Comparisons & analyses of U.S. & global economic data & trends

Issued as final reportSRI Internationa

Identifying the barriers to acceptance of blockchain-based patient-centric data management systems in healthcare

A number of recent studies have shown that wastage and inefficiency are a significant problem in all global healthcare systems. One initiative that could radically improve the operational efficiency of health systems is to make a paradigm shift in data ownership—that is, to transition such systems to a patient-centric model of data management by deploying blockchain technology. Such a development would not only make an economic impact, by radically cutting wastage, but would deliver significant social benefits by improving patient outcomes and satisfaction. However, a blockchain-based solution presents considerable challenges. This research seeks to understand the principal factors, which act as barriers to the acceptance of a blockchain-based patient-centric data management infrastructure, in the healthcare systems of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries. The study represents an addition to the current literature by examining the perspectives and views of healthcare professionals and users. This approach is rare within this subject area, and is identified in existing systematic reviews as a research gap: a qualitative investigation of motivations and attitudes among these groups is a critical need. The results of the study identified 12 key barriers to the acceptance of blockchain infrastructures, thereby adding to our understanding of the challenges that need to be overcome in order to benefit from this relatively recent technology. The research is expected to be of use to healthcare authorities in planning a way forward for system improvement, particularly in terms of successfully introducing patient-centric systems.</p

Beyond prototypes: Enabling innovation in technology-enhanced learning

The TEL research programme, which ran from 2007 to 2013, has generated some substantial gains in our understanding of how to design and deploy technologies for learning. These findings, together with the growing field of technology-enhanced learning internationally, are witnessing the growth of TEL research into a vibrant academic field, extending throughout the UK and beyond. Yet there is a surprising failure to translate the findings, prototypes and outputs of projects into commercial products and services that individually and collectively achieve radical change in the quality of teaching and learning. This difficulty seems part of a general problem of translating innovation in the laboratory (or classroom or school) into commercial gain: A key recurring issue that has been raised in the Science and Technology Committee’s previous inquiries is the difficulty of translating research into commercial application, particularly the lack of funding—the so-called “valley of death”. (Commons Select Committee, 2011 ). The field of Technology Enhanced Learning, despite some notable exceptions, is rife with results that never made it across the valley of death. In the TEL research programme, there were some exciting and innovative examples of working prototypes that solved significant research problems. Yet few of these projects have successfully taken their prototypes to market. Three of the eight funded TEL projects achieved success in gaining follow-on funding from the ESRC specifically earmarked for the achievement of “impact”, although it is too soon to know if and how such impact will be achieved, and more generally, the relationship between impact and the commercial exploitation of projects’ outputs. In general, despite the fact that all projects successfully designed and built effective prototypes of systems: the question is how to move from prototype to product. This report addresses this issue head-on from an interdisciplinary perspective that brings together experts in diverse relevant fields including educational technology, organizational behavior, innovation dynamics

SciTech News Volume 71, No. 2 (2017)

Columns and Reports From the Editor 3 Division News Science-Technology Division 5 Chemistry Division 8 Engineering Division 9 Aerospace Section of the Engineering Division 12 Architecture, Building Engineering, Construction and Design Section of the Engineering Division 14 Reviews Sci-Tech Book News Reviews 16 Advertisements IEEE

Entrepreneurial Ventures and the Developmental State: Lessons from the Advanced Economies

A basic intellectual challenge for those concerned with the poverty of nations is to come to grips with the nature and causes of the wealth of the world?s wealthier nations. One might then be in a position to inform the poorer nations how they might achieve similar outcomes. This paper is organized around what I call ?the theory of innovative enterprise?, a perspective derived from the historical and comparative study of the development of the advanced economies. The theory of innovative enterprise provides the essential analytical link between entrepreneurship and development. Section 2 offers, as a point of departure, a contrast between entrepreneurship in rich and poor nations. Section 3 outlines the theory of the innovating firm in which entrepreneurship has a role to play. Section 4 identifies the roles of entrepreneurship in new firm formation in terms of the types of strategy, organization, and finance that innovation requires, and emphasizes the ?disappearance? of entrepreneurship with the growth of the firm. In Section 5 I argue that, in the advanced economies, successful entrepreneurship in knowledge intensive industries has depended heavily upon a combination of business allocation of resources to innovative investment strategies, and government investment in the knowledge base, state sponsored protection of markets and intellectual property rights, and state subsidies to support these business strategies. One cannot understand national economic development without understanding the role of the developmental state. At the same time, the specific agenda and ultimate success of the developmental state cannot be understood in abstraction from the dynamics of innovative enterprise. It is through the interaction of the innovative enterprise and the developmental state that entrepreneurial activity inserts itself into the economic system to contribute to the process of economic development.entrepreneurship, innovative enterprise, developmental state