Scandinavian Working Papers in Economics

Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation,
Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies

No 47: Review of Theories of Invention and Innovation

Thomas Kaiserfledt ()
Additional contact information
Thomas Kaiserfledt: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, Postal: CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, Royal Institute of Technology, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Abstract: This paper review existing theories of invention and innovation putting them at the center of the understanding of cultural change. After a survey of different categories of inventions and innovations, it introduces a taxonomy relying on the origins of invention and innovation highligting individual qualities, social invironments, resources access and incentives for problem solving. Following this taxonomy, different theories are analyzed and compared. Features of theories are evaluated with respect to their explanatory power. Conclusively. historical trends of theories are outlined as well as some preliminary results ragarding different points of directionss of existing theories.

Keywords: Innovation theory; innovation; invention

JEL-codes: B00

15 pages, March 28, 2006

Full text files

cesiswp47.pdf PDF-file 

Download statistics

Questions (including download problems) about the papers in this series should be directed to Vardan Hovsepyan ()
Report other problems with accessing this service to Sune Karlsson ().

This page generated on 2024-02-21 12:08:39.