Kiel Working Papers, Kiel Institute for World Economics
No 1455:
What drives innovation? Causes of and consequences for nanotechnologies
Ingrid Ott, Christian Papilloud and Torben Zülsdorf
Abstract: Nanotechnologies are expected to be the dominant general
purpose technology of the next decades. Their market potential is immense
and especially demand side arguments will have far reaching consequences
for innovations. They may occur as increased miniaturization or via
building completely new products, processes or services. Innovations in the
field of nanotechnologies do not only affect productivity in downstream
sectors but these feed back to nanotechnologies thereby inducing circles of
continuing innovation. Demand for nanocomponents mainly arises by firms
while private demand is assigned to final products, processes or services
that are augmented by nanotechnologies. Due to the technology’s
controversial character, the consumer’s attitude towards risk and
technology affects private demand and this may either spur or hamper
innovation. The paper aims to unravel how these complex interdependencies
and feedback mechanisms affect overall innovation that is induced by
nanotechnologies and how this on its part affects further improvements of
nanotechnologies
Keywords: general purpose technologies,, controversial technologies,, determinants of innovation; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: O33,; Z13; (follow links to similar papers)
22 pages, October 2008
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