Analysing distributed processes of provision and innovation

The vast majority of products (i.e. goods and services) are provided to the consumer through several co-ordinated and contributing agents acting together. This paper is concerned with improving our understanding of processes of provision and innovation that involve several contributing and co-ordinated agents (firms or organizations). The distributedness of provision and innovation varies in scale and takes a variety of (dynamic) forms (or modes), and their analysis brings to the fore the significance of dependency and asymmetric power relations between classes of economic agent. The approach thereby opens up considerations on 'distributed innovation' beyond those addressed by the 'systems of innovation' perspectives. Copyright 2003, Oxford University Press.