The Mutual Shaping of Technology and Society in Videotex Newspapers: Beyond the Diffusion and Social Shaping Perspectives

This article argues that a mutual shaping lens enables a more encompassing account of the joint processes of technological and social change in new media than the diffusion of innovations and social shaping of technology perspectives. Drawing from recent work in sociology and history of technology, organization studies, social informatics, and computer-supported cooperative work, this article suggests that the shaping and diffusion of media artifacts are so intimately tied that they should be seen as the two sides of the same innovation coin. Using examples from the history of videotex newspapers in the United States, the analysis shows that actors simultaneously pursued interdependent technological and social transformations, that this was an ongoing process in which partial outcomes in the technological domain influenced social events at a later phase—and vice versa—and that such process was influenced by historical developments.     

The Mutual Shaping of Technology and Society in Videotex Newspapers: Beyond the Diffusion and Social Shaping Perspectives

This article argues that a mutual shaping lens enables a more encompassing account of the joint processes of technological and social change in new media than the diffusion of innovations and social shaping of technology perspectives. Drawing from recent work in sociology and history of technology, organization studies, social informatics, and computer-supported cooperative work, this article suggests that the shaping and diffusion of media artifacts are so intimately tied that they should be seen as the two sides of the same innovation coin. Using examples from the history of videotex newspapers in the United States, the analysis shows that actors simultaneously pursued interdependent technological and social transformations, that this was an ongoing process in which partial outcomes in the technological domain influenced social events at a later phase—and vice versa—and that such process was influenced by historical developments.     

Treading new ground in household sector innovation research: Scope,emergence, business implications,and diffusion

Individual consumers in the household sector increasingly develop products, services and processes, in their discretionary time without payment. Household sector innovation is becoming a pervasive phenomenon, representing a significant share of the innovation activity in any economy. Such innovation emerges from personal needs or self-rewards, and is distinct from and complementary to producer innovations motivated by commercial gains. In this introductory paper to the special issue on household sector innovation, we take stock of emerging research on the topic. We categorize the research into four areas: scope, emergence, implications for business, and diffusion. We develop a conceptual basis for the phenomenon, introduce the articles in the special issue, and show how each article contributes new insights. We end by offering a research agenda for scholars interested in the salient phenomenon of household sector innovation.     

The role of pre-innovation platform activity for diffusion success: Evidence from consumer innovations on a 3D printing platform

Digital platforms are becoming increasingly important for household sector innovators that seek support for the innovation process and that want to make innovations available to large audiences. Innovation development and diffusion is especially challenging for first-time innovators as they cannot build on experiences from prior innovations. We argue that first-time innovators can increase the diffusion success of their innovations by engaging in pre-innovation platform activities. We use the context of the 3D printing platform Thingiverse to show that a consumer's pre-innovation platform activity increases innovation diffusion success and that frequency, quality and relatedness of a consumer's pre-innovation platform activity promotes this effect. We find support that innovation quality, the use of recombinant innovations, and innovation documentation are three mechanisms through which pre-innovation platform activities translate into higher diffusion success of consumers’ first innovation.     

Behavioral innovation: Pilot study and new big data analysis approach in household sector user innovation

Innovation researchers have begun to look beyond how users develop tangible objects or product innovations and moved to investigate the existence and impact of intangible user-developed innovations in techniques and services in the household sector . In this paper, to incorporate technique and service innovations and other varieties of intangible innovations not yet described in the literature into an efficient and encompassing typology, we propose the new concept of intangible Behavioral Innovation as an overarching category that stands in contrast to tangible product innovation. Behavioral innovation is defined as consisting of one or a connected sequence of intangible problem-solving activities that provide a functionally novel benefit to its user developer relative to previous practice. We demonstrate in a pilot study using a relatively novel big data-gathering and semantic analysis approach that behavioral innovation exists and can be identified in user-generated content posted openly online in peer-to-peer discussion forums relating to household sector activities such as parenting. The preponderance (N = 138) of the 168 user innovations captured in our samples of discussion comments were intangible behavioral innovations, most of which were developed by women. The majority of behavioral innovations identified were diffused by their user developers in response to specific requests for help or advice from peers in their online community. Thus, incorporating the new concept of intangible behavioral innovation into studies of user innovation's scope and significance in the household sector can serve to clarify which users innovate in our communities of interest, what and how they innovate, why they are triggered to diffuse their innovations peer-to-peer, and how their innovative activities might impact social welfare.     

From symbolic values to symbolic innovation: Internet-memes and innovation

Innovation studies has largely focused on technological assets, while leaving other sources and forms of innovation less tackled. Among this neglected corpus, this article stresses the important role played by symbolic value in the consumption and production processes of innovative goods and services. I explore especially Internet-memes that represent iconic productions of the Internet ‘lead culture’, which embed significant symbolic values. This article therefore, refers to the economic sociology and innovation management literature to emphasise the force of these creations of symbolic value by culture-lead communities, through their production of Internet-memes. I argue that Internet-memes represent a widespread source of innovation in various sectors (from cultural industries to less expect ones like finance). While exploratory, the present study extends the debate on the nature of innovation, its symbolic and cultural aspects and its diffusion processes. It ultimately suggests potential new paths for innovation policies to tackle these new forms of innovations.     

Normative contestation in transitions ‘in the making’: Animal welfare concerns and system innovation in pig husbandry

Previous studies of system innovations mainly focused on historical cases that were driven by commercial motivations of pioneers and entrepreneurs. This article investigates a system innovation in the making that is driven by normative concerns, such as sustainability or animal welfare, initially formulated by outsiders like special-interest groups. Our central research question is: How, when and why is normative contestation of existing regimes effective in influencing the orientation of transitions in the making?The conceptual framework enriches innovation studies and the multi-level perspective with insights from social movement theory (SMT) and political science. SMT is used to analyze the build up of normative pressure (through framing, resource mobilization, and political opportunity structures). From political science we use the notion of multiple streams, in our analysis a problem, regulatory, market and technology stream.The research design consists of a comparative case study of pig husbandry systems. One case analyses the sub-sector of pregnant sows where normative pressures, after several decades, led to the changes advocated by the contestants. The second case concerns the sub-sector of pig fattening where normative pressure was less successful.The difference is partly explained by the normative pressure for pregnant sows being larger than for fattening pigs. The other part of the explanation is that in the first case normative pressure aligned better with the three other streams (regulatory, market and technology) to lead to the changes desired by the contestants.     

The rich or the poor? Personal resources,do-it-yourself,and innovation in the household sector

Household sector innovation is significant in scale and scope. Thus far, it has been studied in isolation and with mixed evidence regarding the role of personal resources (consumers' income and discretionary time). We recognize that household sector innovation is embedded in the broader phenomenon of do-it-yourself (DIY) by consumers, as the literature reveals conceptual similarities, parallel motivations, and antecedents. The main distinction is that, whereas DIY goods may replicate existing products, household sector innovation is restricted to goods embodying a novel function. We explore if studying household sector innovation and DIY in an integrated framework helps to resolve previous inconsistent evidence on the role of personal resources. Based on a neoclassical model in which agents optimize their time allocation, we hypothesize that income and discretionary time positively relate to their DIY output, but—given that agents develop DIY goods—we hypothesize that income negatively relates to innovation. For discretionary time, we formulate a research question regarding its effect on innovation which we answer empirically. Our findings suggest that consumers with more personal resources derive more process benefits from DIY but that these benefits crowd out individuals' focus on the function of their objects, hence, the likelihood of developing innovations. Survey data from the United Arab Emirates (n = 2728) confirm our suppositions, showing that the relationship between personal resources and household sector innovation is more refined than suggested by previous studies.     

Policies to promote user innovation: Makerspaces and clinician innovation in Swedish hospitals

As it becomes apparent that users are an important source in innovation in society and in organizations, scholars are realizing that user-directed innovation policy might contribute to improving social welfare. How such policy might be designed, however, is uncertain, as are the costs and benefits of such policies. It is also not clear whether there is a problem for user-directed policy to solve, or what that problem is.As a first empirical step to answering these questions, we report the results of providing hospital clinicians with access to ‘makerspaces’, i.e. staffed facilities with prototyping tools and the expertise in using them.Findings suggest that almost all innovations developed in the makerspaces are user innovations; that the potential returns from the innovations developed in the makerspaces’ first year of operation are more than tenfold the required investment; and that most of the innovations would not have been developed without access to makerspaces. Due to lack of diffusion, only a limited share of potential returns is realized.This suggests not only that there are problems of non-development and under-development that policy can solve and that doing so supports social welfare. It also suggests makerspaces as an effective form of user-supporting innovation policy.     

环境政策工具组合、环境技术创新与绩效

市场型环境政策工具与命令控制型工具往往相互结合起来共同影响企业环境创新行为乃至企业绩效,因此有必要验证市场激励型与命令控制型工具的组合对环境创新和企业绩效的影响。应用调查问卷数据建立完整的模型,采用多元回归分析研究了环境政策工具及其交互项对环境技术创新和企业绩效的影响。与以往大多数产业层面的环境规制及其效应研究不同,本研究充分考虑了企业环境管理水平和管理者环境意识等变量从而降低了遗漏变量偏差。研究表明,命令控制型政策有利于企业环境技术创新,部分市场激励型环境政策工具如排污收费制度对企业环境技术创新具有正向影响。命令控制型政策工具和排污收费制度、政府补贴的交互项有利于企业环境产品创新和工艺创新,并促进企业绩效。环境产品创新和工艺创新在环境政策对企业绩效的影响中发挥完全中介作用。环境工艺创新在环境政策对企业环境绩效的影响中发挥完全中介作用。     

科研创新网络中知识扩散演化机制研究

从社会资本视角来看,创新网络中知识扩散的实质是一种社会交换,网络中的知识扩散受社会关系网络中个体位势的影响。研究从微观视角切入,探讨科研网络中的知识主体对其知识扩散的动态影响机制。选取度中心度、Bonacich Power中心度、效率结构洞、中介中心度四种SNA算法,从知识的多样性、传递路径的非确定性和平行复制三个属性对比各SNA算法所暗含的知识扩散特征,对科研网络中知识扩散机制提出假设,选取国内知识管理领域发表于1998-2011年的CSSCI数据,利用Cox比例风险模型构建生存分析模型,研究各SNA算法对该领域知识扩散演化机制的解释程度。研究发现占据"结构洞"位置和度数中心度高的权威个体在知识管理领域知识扩散中发挥最为重要的作用;该领域主要通过团队成员间的平行复制和不同团队间的知识多样化融合来实现知识的扩散与创新。     

Edwin Mansfield’s contributions to the economics of technology

Edwin Mansfield’s contributions to the economics of technology are summarized from the early 1960s through his death in 1997. Mansfield’s methodology is discussed, as are his contributions on: the diffusion of technical innovation, the effect of firm size on innovation, the role of academic and basic research in increasing innovation and productivity, international technology transfer and the inaccuracy of technological forecasts. The economics profession’s evaluation of the relative importance of Mansfield’s work is presented, using as evidence citation counts of his works collected from the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Identified as among Mansfield’s most important contributions are his work on the importance of academic research for industrial innovations, his empirical estimation of the rates of diffusion of different innovations, and his estimation of the private and social returns from investments in industrial innovations. Finally, we present Mansfield’s advice on the future of the economics of technology.     

基于Lotka-Volterra模型的创新扩散模式研究

借用生物学中著名的Lotka-Volterra模型对具有相互影响关系的创新扩散问题进行了深入分析.研究表明,在创新扩散过程中存在三种作用模式:竞争模式,两类创新相互抑制;互利共存模式,两类创新相互促进;捕食模式,一类创新的存在促进另一类创新的发展,而同时后者又抑制前者的发展,反之亦然.由于创新的性能、价格等影响市场竞争的因素随时间而变化,两类创新之间的作用模式也会随之在这三种模式之间相互转化.     

Bridging distant technological domains: A longitudinal study of the determinants of breadth of innovation diffusion

The diffusion of innovations is identified as an important aspect of technological and social change. Innovations diffuse through segmented networks of knowledge that limit the flow of knowledge from any one technological domain to any other. Despite this segmentation, some organizations are capable of developing pieces of knowledge that overcome these limitations. Within this context, we develop four hypotheses regarding specific R&D strategies that affect a firm’s ability to develop inventions that diffuse beyond the firm’s technological boundaries. Specifically, we examine how a firm's scientific intensity, technological collaborations, technological diversity, and internal focus impact breadth of innovation diffusion. We use two of the main determinants of innovation diffusion, namely, the relative advantage and the observability, as theoretical mechanisms to build our arguments. We empirically test our hypotheses on longitudinal data from the industries of pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and chemicals. Our findings show that the extent to which the knowledge embedded in a firm’s inventions diffuses in distant technological areas is positively related to the firm’s scientific intensity and to its extent of collaboration, but it is negatively related to its technological diversity.     

Techno therapy or nurtured niches? Technology studies and the evaluation of radical innovations

This article contributes to recent discussions in technology studies about applying insights from technology studies to policy decisions about the development and management of technological innovations. It does so by examining two approaches that can be used by policy makers to manage radical technological innovations in mobility and transportation: strategic niche management (SNM) and the PROTEE approach. The SNM approach uses protective ‘niches’ to develop radical innovations, whereas the PROTEE method is grounded in the assumption that technological innovations have a better chance of success if made “vulnerable” by subjecting them to risks and oppositions from the outset. Both SNM and PROTEE have, so far, been applied to retrospective case studies. This paper examines their potential effectiveness in the monitoring of real time innovation projects by comparing their conceptualizations of ‘learning’ and ‘experimenting’. It argues that the two approaches can draw upon each other to achieve a more refined conceptualization of learning and experimenting and in dealing with the problem of change and obduracy in the development of innovation projects.     

Technological innovation and industrial research in Japan

As a background to the development of Japanese industry, important characteristics of its technological innovations and industrial research are discussed. The parrticular nature of Japanese development, if any, should be explained by the fact that from the start of industrialization by the Meiji Government, technological innovation was pursued as an integrated process from the outset, including important facets such as education, technology transfer, indigenous research, development, commercialization, and diffusion of technology and products.The integrated approach was a natural consequence of the effort of late-coming Japanese industry and the government to catch up with the already highly developed industries abroad. However, the world-wide trend after World War II for technological innovations to take place on an increasingly large scale, required an integrated approach. This favoured the break-through of Japanese industries, especially in the economic environment of high growth in the 1960s.Industrialization in the Meiji Era. technological development of Japanese industry in the post-war period, the characteristics of industrial research which supported development and new innovations in the 1980s are described.It is concluded that the industrial policy of the government in promoting a broad economic and social background for innovation and the activities of innovative enterprises in the private sector have been the two major activities which worked together to achieve the present state of Japanese industry.     

原始创新动力问题探讨

原始创新在创新活动中的逻辑地位很高,但它在企业创新活动中的实际地位却较低,这便形成了原始创新的动力缺乏问题。解决原始创新动力缺乏问题的出路在于科技金融创新,以吸引社会资本进入原始创新活动,在创新的早期阶段就能实现生产要素的成功聚集,并进而实现生产要素的新组合。具体做法可参照国外创设金融特区和高科技园区金融服务体系的经验,在北京的中关村等地设立科技金融创新试验区。     

Adopters build bridges: Changing the institutional logic for more sustainable cities. From action to workset to practice

The aim of this article is to develop a model of change in urban context to map key steps towards changing an institutional logic: How can new ideas that aim at changing the dominant logic become practice in a city? To this end, the article explores the innovation process of institutions, thereby bringing together areas of research on institutional entrepreneurship, innovation processes, and transformation. Our model interlinks invention, innovation and adoption of new institutions to achieve a new institutional logic for more sustainable development in a city. We introduce ‘workset’ as an interim step between action and practice and identify local adopters as key for diffusion. We illustrate our framework using a case study of urban institutional entrepreneurship in the socio-economic system of a German city. Our findings indicate that the roles of local institutional entrepreneurs and local adopters partly overlap, that worksets are crucial for broader diffusion of new institutions, and that a robust design supports the adoption of the institutional innovation.     

Hiding practices in employee-user innovation

Recent research has demonstrated that employees can develop novel solutions to work-process-related problems that they experience directly, but in order for organizations to benefit from this form of user innovation (“employee-user innovation”), employee-developed innovations need to diffuse within the innovator's organization. This paper challenges the prevalent assumption in studies of employee-user innovation that employee-users readily reveal and diffuse their innovations. Based on a grounded analysis of 117 innovations developed by rank-and-file workers that we identified during 32 months of ethnographic fieldwork in two police units and two military units in Denmark, we show that employee-users frequently invest considerable effort in actively hiding their innovations. We (i) identify four distinct hiding practices that employee-user innovators enact, (ii) demonstrate how decisions about whether and how to hide are based on interpretations of a range of material and organizational conditions, and (iii) show how these decisions negatively impact the employee-user innovation process by impeding not just use and diffusion, but also the development of innovations. Our findings carry implications for user innovation research, as well as for how we understand both covert innovation processes in organization and the relationship between bureaucratic organization and innovation.     

基于科学的创新：对青霉素和晶体管的案例的重新分析

科学不只是以求知为目的,并且实际上能够产生新技术。这种基于科学的创新往往发生在科学的前沿,并且与新行业的形成有关。但对这种创新的模式,理论上尚未深入研究。本文通过对两个著名的案例（青霉素和晶体管的发明）的重新分析,对这一类创新的模式、互动与动态进行了研究。基于科学的创新显示出由科学发现驱动的线性模式,依赖科学与技术的互动。这两个案例还显示：在某些行业,创新一直保持着与科学的联系,而在另一些行业,创新则由基于科学的模式转向基于技术的模式。这些发现对于政策和理论的含义也在文中进行了讨论。