This handbook looks to provide academics and students with a comprehensive and holistic understanding of the phenomenon of innovation. Innovation spans a number of fields within the social sciences and humanities: Management, Economics, Geography, Sociology, Politics, Psychology, and History. Consequently, the rapidly increasing body of literature on innovation is characterized by a multitude of perspectives based on, or cutting across, existing disciplines and specializations. Scholars of innovation can come from such diverse starting points that much of this literature can be missed, and so constructive dialogues missed. The editors of The Oxford Handbook of Innovation have carefully selected and designed twenty-one contributions from leading academic experts within their particular field, each focusing on a specific aspect of innovation. These have been organized into four main sections, the first of which looks at the creation of innovations, with particular focus on firms and networks. Section Two provides an account of the wider systematic setting influencing innovation and the role of institutions and organizations in this context. Section Three explores some of the diversity in the working of innovation over time and across different sectors of the economy, and Section Four focuses on the consequences of innovation with respect to economic growth, international competitiveness, and employment. An introductory overview, concluding remarks, and guide to further reading for each chapter, make this handbook a key introduction and vital reference work for researchers, academics, and advanced students of innovation. Contributors to this volume - Jan Fagerberg, University of Oslo William Lazonick, INSEAD Walter W. Powell, Stanford University Keith Pavitt, SPRU Alice Lam, Brunel University Keith Smith, INTECH Charles Edquist, Linkoping David Mowery, University of California, Berkeley Mary O'Sullivan, INSEAD Ove Granstrand, Chalmers Bjorn Asheim, University of Lund Rajneesh Narula, Copenhagen Business School Antonello Zanfei, Urbino Kristine Bruland, University of Oslo Franco Malerba, University of Bocconi Nick Von Tunzelmann, SPRU Ian Miles, University of Manchester Bronwyn Hall, University of California, Berkeley Bart Verspagen , ECIS Francisco Louca, ISEG Manuel M. Godinho, ISEG Richard R. Nelson, Mario Pianta, Urbino Bengt-Ake Lundvall, Aalborg

The Oxford Handbook of Innovation

Models that depict innovation as a smooth, well-behaved linear process badly misspecify the nature and direction of the causal factors at work. Innovation is complex, uncertain, somewhat disorderly, and subject to changes of many sorts. Innovation is also difficult to measure and demands close coordination of adequate technical knowledge and excellent market judgment in order to satisfy economic, technological, and other types of constraints—all simultaneously. The process of innovation must be viewed as a series of changes in a complete system not only of hardware, but also of market environment, production facilities and knowledge, and the social contexts of the innovation organization.

An Overview of Innovation

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/spru/documents/smith-fressoli-2013.pdf

Grassroots innovation movements: challenges and contributions

Agricultural production involves the scaling of agricultural innovations such as disease-resistant and drought-tolerant maize varieties, zero-tillage techniques, permaculture cultivation practices based on perennial crops and automated milking systems. Scaling agricultural innovations should take into account complex interactions between biophysical, social, economic and institutional factors. Actual methods of scaling are rather empirical and based on the premise of ‘find out what works in one place and do more of the same, in another place’. These methods thus do not sufficiently take into account complex realities beyond the concepts of innovation transfer, dissemination, diffusion and adoption. As a consequence, scaling initiatives often do not produce the desired effect. They may produce undesirable effects in the form of negative spill-overs or unanticipated side effects such as environmental degradation, bad labour conditions of farm workers and loss of control of farming communities over access to genetic resources. Therefore, here, we conceptualise scaling processes as an integral part of a systemic approach to innovation, to anticipate on the possible consequences of scaling efforts. We propose a method that connects the heuristic framework of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP) to a philosophical ‘modal aspects’ framework, with the objective of elucidating the connectedness between technologies, processes and practices. The resultant framework, the PRactice-Oriented Multi-level perspective on Innovation and Scaling (PROMIS), can inform research and policymakers on the complex dynamics involved in scaling. This is illustrated in relation to three cases in which the framework was applied: scaling agro-ecological practices in Nicaragua, farmer field schools on cocoa cultivation in Cameroon and ‘green rubber’ cultivation in Southwest China.

/pdf/systemic-perspectives-on-scaling-agricultural-innovations-a-5vooa8g8gk.pdf

Systemic perspectives on scaling agricultural innovations. A review

This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing conceptual debate on responsible innovation, and provides innovation practices and processes that can help to implement responsible innovation in the business context. Based on a systematic literature review of 72 empirical scholarly articles, it was possible to identify, analyse and synthesise empirical findings reported in studies on social, sustainable and responsible innovation practices in the business context. The synthesis of the included articles resulted in a refined framework for responsible innovation in the business context. This framework includes an overview of innovation practices and processes that can enhance the dimensions of responsible innovation: anticipation, reflexivity, inclusion, deliberation, responsiveness and knowledge management. Additionally, knowledge gaps are identified and a research agenda for responsible innovation is proposed. This review can therefore serve as a next step in the theoretical and practical development of responsible innovation in general, and in the business context in particular.

Lessons for Responsible Innovation in the Business Context: A Systematic Literature Review of Responsible, Social and Sustainable Innovation Practices

In March 2014 a group of early career researchers and academics from Sao Paulo state and from the UK met at the University of Campinas to participate in a workshop on ‘Responsible Innovation and the Governance of Socially Controversial Technologies’. In this Perspective we describe key reflections and observations from the workshop discussions, paying particular attention to the discourse of responsible innovation from a cross-cultural perspective. We describe a number of important tensions, paradoxes and opportunities that emerged over the three days of the workshop.

https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/69997/1/23299460_2E2014_2E922249.pdf

Responsible innovation across borders: tensions, paradoxes and possibilities

El objetivo del presente articulo es explicar el proceso de evolucion del pensamiento latinoamericano en ciencia, tecnologia y sociedad, desde los anos sesenta hasta la actualidad. Para ello, se adopta un esquema analitico que incorpora estilizaciones y simplificaciones. En terminos cronologicos, el esquema propone dos fases, sesenta-setenta y ochenta-noventa, de manera de explicitar los cambios en la naturaleza de las relaciones entre hechos, discursos, actores y acciones. En terminos espaciales, se busca una generalizacion, a partir de procesos verificados en algunos paises latinoamericanos (en especial Argentina y Brasil), de la dinamica de la region. En terminos del recorte analitico, se proponen tres niveles para la observacion de la dinamica de estos procesos: contexto, reflexion y politica. Por ultimo, en las consideraciones finales se comparan los comportamientos de los actores del pensamiento CTS de los dos periodos diferenciados y se proponen algunas trayectorias que atraviesan las cuatro decadas analizadas.

El pensamiento en ciencia, tecnología y sociedad en Latinoamérica : una interpretación política de su trayectoria

The university-firm relationship (UFR) is approached having as a guide the “Triple Helix statement” (TH), undestood as a combination of two currents of thought produced in advanced countries — the “Second Academic Revolution” and the one that stresses the relations between firms and their context as competitiveness factors — and an associated measure of Science and Technology Policy (STP) — the Technological Parks.
Analysing the evolution of UFR interpretations in Latin America — the frameworks used, the analytic or disciplinary postures, their influence on the research community and in the STP — the paper shows how TH debilitated the interpretation that had been dominant until the end of the 1980s, and how the debate in course between these two present positions tends to progress. By offering a standard for critical analysis of the changes in the explanatory and normative-institutional models of STP in advanced and peripheric countries, TH can inform new interpretations more adherent to the democratization scenario that is being constructed in the country.

Renato Dagnino

Papers

Responsible innovation across borders: tensions, paradoxes and possibilities

El pensamiento en ciencia, tecnología y sociedad en Latinoamérica : una interpretación política de su trayectoria

A Relação Universidade-Empresa no Brasil e o "Argumento da Hélice Tripla"

Tecnologia social : ferramenta para construir outra sociedade

A tecnologia social e seus desafios