The structure and regulation of consumption and demand has recently become of great interest to sociologists and economists alike, and at the same time there is growing interest in trying to understand the patterns and drivers of technological innovation. This book, newly available in paperback, brings together a range of sociologists and economists to study the role of demand and consumption in the innovative process. The book starts with a broad conceptual overview of ways that the sociological and economics literatures address issues of innovation, demand and consumption. It goes on to offer different approaches to the economics of demand and innovation through an evolutionary framework, before reviewing how consumption fits into evolutionary models of economic development. Food consumption is then looked at as an example of innovation by demand, including an examination of the dynamic nature of socially-constituted consumption routines. The book includes a number of illuminating case studies, including an analysis of how black Americans use consumption to express collective identity, and a number of demand-innovation relationships within matrices or chains of producers and users or other actors, including service industries such as security, and the environmental performance of companies. The involvement of consumers in innovation is looked at, including an analysis of how consumer needs may be incorporated in the design of high-tech products. The final chapter argues for the need to build an economic sociology of demand that goes from micro-individual through to macro-structural features. This book is relevant to United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9, Industry, innovation and infrastructure -- .

This book investigates the effects of organizational contexts on the process of technological innovation. It analyses the internal organization of the firm as well as external influences, and examines how these factors affect a firm's innovative potential. The organization of the firm, it is argued, is intrinsic to the innovation process itself. The authors consider new concepts of the theory of the firm, look at evolutionary economics and concepts of innovation within this school of thought, and analyse national and sectoral systems of innovation. They discuss firm-specific knowledge and organization, and its effects on innovative opportunities. In addition, they pay special attention to a firm's ability to innovate in relation to incentives, and the sources of technology available to them. From this they conclude that organizational factors are primary features of the process of technical change. Included in the discussion are examinations of: * networks of collaborating firms in R&D activity * 'technology foresight' and the direction of future innovative activity in industrial sectors * the relationship between business units and corporate parents * government and regulatory agencies * the role of capital, and short termism in financial markets * the relationship between suppliers and customers Technological Change and Organization will be of welcomed by those interested in technological change and innovation, institutional and evolutionary economics, as well as to microeconomists interested in the theory of the firm and industrial organization.

Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked about, and controversial natural product in recent years. Celebrated because of its efficacy as an anticancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity. Talked about because in the early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports about the molecule and its host, the slow-growing Pacific yew tree. Controversial because the drug and the yew tree became embroiled in several sensitive political issues with broad public policy implications. Taxol has revolutionized the treatment options for patients with advanced forms of breast and ovarian cancers and some types of leukemia; it shows promise for treating AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. It is the best-selling anticancer drug ever, with world sales of $1.2 billion in 1998 and expected to grow. Goodman and Walsh's careful study of how taxol was discovered, researched, and brought to market documents the complexities and conflicting interests in the ongoing process to find effective treatments. From a broader perspective, The Story of Taxol uses the discovery and development of taxol as a paradigm to address current issues in the history and sociology of science and medicine. Jordan Goodman is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology. He has written on subjects as varied as the history of medicine and economic history for journal articles and in edited volumes. Goodman's previous books include Tobacco in History (Routledge, 1994) and Consuming Habits: Drugs in History and Anthropology (Routledge, 1995). Vivien Walsh is Reader in Technology Management at the Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology. She has been researching the pharmaceutical and chemical industry for years and is currently working on globalization of innovative activity in the face of technological and organizational changes in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and agro-food industries. Walsh has been a consultant to the European Commission and to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Taxol is arguably the most celebrated, talked about, and controversial natural product in recent years. Celebrated because of its efficacy as an anticancer drug and because its discovery has provided powerful support for policies concerned with biodiversity. Talked about because in the early 1990s the American public was bombarded with news reports about the molecule and its host, the slow-growing Pacific yew tree. Controversial because the drug and the yew tree became embroiled in several sensitive political issues with broad public policy implications. Taxol has revolutionized the treatment options for patients with advanced forms of breast and ovarian cancers and some types of leukemia; it shows promise for treating AIDS-related Kaposi's sarcoma. It is the best-selling anticancer drug ever, with world sales of $1.2 billion in 1998 and expected to grow. Goodman and Walsh's careful study of how taxol was discovered, researched, and brought to market documents the complexities and conflicting interests in the ongoing process to find effective treatments. From a broader perspective, The Story of Taxol uses the discovery and development of taxol as a paradigm to address current issues in the history and sociology of science and medicine. Jordan Goodman is a Senior Lecturer in History at the Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology. He has written on subjects as varied as the history of medicine and economic history for journal articles and in edited volumes. Goodman's previous books include Tobacco in History (Routledge, 1994) and Consuming Habits: Drugs in History and Anthropology (Routledge, 1995). Vivien Walsh is Reader in Technology Management at the Manchester School of Management, University of Manchester Institute of Science & Technology. She has been researching the pharmaceutical and chemical industry for years and is currently working on globalization of innovative activity in the face of technological and organizational changes in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and agro-food industries. Walsh has been a consultant to the European Commission and to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The interplay between demand from the market, the role of users in shaping that demand, and the way in which these factors influence the innovation process has always been a complex one. This forward thinking book examines this interplay from a technological change perspective.The contributors explore the potential for rapprochement between economics, sociological and other social science disciplines in considering the allocation of resources and the making of decisions about technological change. The papers within this book represent a judicious blend of theory and empirical research and look at a broad range of innovations, markets and technologies in medicine, agricultural and food production, services and IT. Technology and the Market raises the question of the many 'visible hands' that are involved in linking technology and the market together. This book is recommended to academics and policymakers interested in demand-innovation interaction, scholars of industrial economics and the sociology of technology as well as entrepreneurs. Understanding user needs is now seen as one of the most important factors in the success of innovation and one of the raisons d'etre of market research. This book attempts to move the boundaries to show the importance of how demand is detected or constructed by innovators.

Thinking that "all of the other reindeer" she hears people singing about include her, Olive the dog reports to the North Pole to help Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

Technological change is central in explaining industrial leadership, but the relationships and interactions between scientific research, industrial innovation, and competitiveness are neither clear nor straightforward. Public research funding and business strategy dictate to a significant extent the manner in, and extent to which innovation occurs within the economy. This book analyses the role of technological change in the competitiveness of firms and national economies. This includes an examination of: * the roles of R&D spending, and the organisational and technological capabilities of firms in the encouragement of innovation; * the way institutions in various nations differ in the way in which they encourage - or discourage - innovation; and the way in which different industrial sectors provide - or fail to provide - incentives to innovate; and * the ways in which trade, the operation of multinationals and international trade negotiations influence national production and innovation systems . The book combines insights of innovation scholars with those from business history, sociology and economics, in exploring the relation between organizational structures and the process of innovation. It places the analysis of innovation within an international perspective and gives historical and current examples of the interaction between organisational and technological capabilities, industrial and innovation policies and economic performance. Examples are drawn from a range of sectors (services, pharmaceuticals, construction, chemicals) and a range of countries (including the UK and other European countries, the USA, East Asia and Latin America).

Technological change is key in explaining industrial leadership, but the relationships and interactions between scientific research, industrial innovation, and competitiveness are neither clear nor straightforward. This book analyses the role of technological change in the competitiveness of firms and national economies.