What drives innovation? Evidence from economic history
研究了经济环境变化如何影响企业创新，基于瑞典1970-2007年产品创新数据，发现创新多是对特定历史事件和问题的回应，而非持续努力的结果。
An unresolved issue in innovation studies is to what extent and how innovation is affected by changes in the economic environment of firms. This study elaborates on a theoretical framework that unites theories of innovation as creative response and the economics of complexity. In the empirical section, results from a new micro-based database on Swedish product innovations, 1970–2007, are introduced. Applying the theoretical framework, both quantitative evidence and collected innovation biographies inform of the historical impulses that have shaped innovation activity in the Swedish economy in two broad surges during the 1970s and 1990s. The study shows that, rather than being the result of continuous efforts, most innovations were developed as a response to discrete events, history-specific problems and new technological opportunities. It is also suggested that patterns of creative response are industry-specific and associated with the radicalness and complexity of innovation processes.