Franco Malerba

Uwe Cantner

The general theme of the 10th International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society Conf- ence, held during June 9th–12th, 2004 at Universita` Luigi Bocconi, Milan, was the exploration of the dynamics of industries driven by the highly interrelated processes of innovation and of structural transformation. The phenomena addressed are at the core of Schumpeter’s work and the discussion of these endogenously created modes of change constitutes one of the major Schumpeterian legacies of today. Indeed, the in?uence of the Schumpeterian approach to economic dynamics is far reaching and covers evolutionary as well as neoclassical theories. This book provides an account of work in the Schumpeterian and evolutionary tradition of industrial dynamics and the evolution of industries. Here, the main analytical concern is that, over time, industries evolve and change their structure, and that, in this dynamic process, knowledge and technologies, the capabilities and incentives of actors, new products and processes (as well as variants of existing ones), and institutions affect and constrain change, sometimes smoothly and so- times in a radical way. Thus, what is meant here by the term structure and structural change is not the traditional market structure view (as re?ected, for example, in the classical discussion of the Schumpeterian Hypotheses), but all those elements and relations between actors, knowledge and technologies which drive innovative activities and greatly affect economic performance in an industry.

Schumpeterian Legacies

Innovation, Industrial Dynamics and Structural Transformation

João Leitão

Giuseppe Favretto

Serena Cubico

Adopting evolutionary and behavioral approaches, this volume presents the latest research advances in knowledge competencies and human capital, as well as the changing structural dynamics, highlighting their links with entrepreneurial activities. It provides a set of international, benchmark case studies on initiatives (at the national, regional or individual level) geared towards entrepreneurship development. Focusing on diverse environments, systems and life cycle stages: young, established and transition industries and markets; as well as regions, it offers a valuable guide for scholars and practitioners interested in the interaction of entrepreneurship, knowledge competencies, human resources management and innovation.

The Changing Role of Human Capital and Competences

Entrepreneurship and the Industry Life Cycle

Dennis C. Mueller

Joseph Schumpeter oscillated in his view about the type of economic system that was most conducive to growth. In his 1911 treatise, Schumpeter argued that a more decentralized and turbulent industry structure where the pro cess of creative destruction was triggered by vigorous entrepreneurial ac tivity was the engine of economic growth. But by 1942 Schumpeter had modified his theory, arguing instead that a more centralized and stable industry structure was more conducive to growth. According to Schum peter (1942, p. 132), under the managed economy there was little room for entrepreneurship because, "Innovation itself is being reduced to routine. Technological progress is increasingly becoming the business of teams of trained specialists who turn out what is required to make it work in pre dictable ways" (p. 132). Schumpeter (1942) reversed his earlier view by arguing that the integration of knowledge creation and appropriation be stowed an inherent innovative advantage upon giant corporations, "Since capitalist enterprise, by its very achievements, tends to automize progress, we conclude that it tends to make itself superfluous - to break to pieces under the pressure of its own success.

Proceedings of the International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society Conference, Vienna 1998 “Capitalism and Socialism in the 21st Century”

Capitalism and Democracy in the 21st Century

J. Stan Metcalfe

For as long as one can remember, the edifice of the neoclassical economic syn thesis has been under attack. Critiques have focused on the extreme unreality of the assumptions that underpin the Arrow-Debreu theorems of welfare economics. They have queried the excessive formalism of the edifice, and the lack of practical significance of many of the results.They have castigated the neoclassical synthesis for its internal incoherence (lacking an independent theory of capital, for example, one of the favorite topics of the Cambridge school), its lack of a dynamic element, its non-evolutionary character, its lack of any conception of "market process" and so the list could be continued (Blaug, 1997). Through all this, the neoclassi cal synthesis remains as strong as ever, impervious it seems to these or any other attacks. In this paper a different tack is taken. The neoclassical edifice is left alone, standing as a representation of what goes on in a certain kind ofeconomy- namely the economy wheregoods and services are producedand exchanged. The paper then introduces another kind of economy, namely an economy of productive entities called "resources"- that are needed to produce the economyofgoods and services.

Change, Transformation and Development

Horst Hanusch

Steven Klepper

The twelve papers in this collection grew out of the workshop on "Eco nomic Evolution, Learning, and Complexity" held at the University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany on May 23-25, 1997. The Augsburg workshop was the second of two events in the Euroconference Series on Evolutionary Economics, the first of which was held in Athens, Greece in September 1993. A special issue of the Journal of Evolutionary Econo mics (1993(4)) edited by Yannis Katsoulacos on "Evolutionary and Neo classical Perspectives on Market Structure and Economic Growth" con tains selected papers from the Athens conference. The Athens conference explored neoclassical and evolutionary perspectives on technological competition and increasing returns. It helped to identify the dis tinguishing features of evolutionary scholarship. The Augsburg workshop was more oriented toward exploring methodological issues in evolutiona of the papers employed new me ry and related scholarship. A number thods, such as genetic programming and experimental analysis, some developed new econometric techniques or raised new empirical issues in evolutionary economics, and some relied on simulation techniques. Twelve papers covering a range of areas were selected for this collection. The papers address central issues in evolutionary and Schumpeterian accounts of industrial competition, learning, and innovation.

Economic Evolution, Learning, and Complexity

Jean-Luc Gaffard

Lionel Nesta

Recent developments in economics have gone from the recognition of the importance of innovation for growth and the exploration of innovation mechanisms to the incorporation of the results of the previous research into economic models. An important lesson to be drawn from all this research is that a purely macro-based analysis of growth is not enough. The various mechanisms of innovation creation and diffusion, the importance of agent heterogeneity, of market selection processes, of the internal organization of the firm and of organizational routines, and the obsolescence and the consequent emergence of new types of capital goods are a few examples of micro-economic phenomena that contribute decisively to macro-economic development. The papers in this volume approach those issues from a Schumpeterian point of view and tackle issues like the growing importance of knowledge and human capital; increasing returns and path dependence; the role of variety in economic growth; competition and industry evolution.

Uwe Cantner

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