The special issue is introduced and contextualised. “Technological paradigms” emerged as “science push” models of innovation were being displaced by “demand pull” models that justified a more international, market-focussed political economy. Technological paradigms help explain the...

This paper focuses on the relationships between observed patterns of innovative activities within a sector and the related context and underlying microeconomic processes that might account for them. It claims that there are some invariant features (with respect to relative prices and incentives...

This paper is a first attempt at modelling the long-term dynamics of market structure and innovation in the pharmaceutical industry in a history-friendly way. The model examines the relationships between the nature of the search space, demand, the patterns of competition, and industry evolution...

This article proposes that learning by firms lies at the root of incremental technical change in industry. Firms may, therefore, be seen as learning organizations for the acquisition, accumulation, and generation of knowledge. Furthermore, firms may be characterized by different levels and types...

This introduction sets in context the works that follow, which are meant to take stock of the theoretical advances and also historical changes since the seminal Arrow (1962) and Nelson (1959). First, we summarize some of the original Arrow--Nelson insights. Second, we map the subsequent...

The history of a number of industries is marked by a succession of eras, associated with different dominant technologies. Within any era, industry concentration tends to grow. Particular eras are broken by the introduction of a new technology which, while initially inferior to the established...