New technological path creation

evidence from the British and German wind energy industries

authored by: James Simmie, Rolf Sternberg, Juliet Carpenter
Abstract: The canonical economic literature on path dependence provides only a limited explanation of why and how new technological pathways are created initially. The motivation of this paper is to address this gap in the literature and argue that evolutionary economics theories of path dependence need to be linked with sociological explanations of how new technological pathways are created in the first instance by knowledgeable inventors and innovators. These arguments are developed by the authors in a hybrid socio-economic theory of new path creation. In this paper these theoretical arguments are illustrated empirically by a comparative analysis of the introduction and diffusion of new wind power technologies in Britain and Germany. The empirical analysis focuses on the key research question of why the introduction of these new technologies started earlier and has diffused sooner in Germany than in Britain.
Organisation(s): Institute of Economic and Human Geography
External Organisation(s): Oxford Brookes University
Université de Lyon
Type: Article
Journal: Journal of evolutionary economics
Volume: 24
Pages: 875-904
No. of pages: 30
ISSN: 0936-9937
Publication date: 09.2014
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: General Business,Management and Accounting, Economics and Econometrics
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 7 - Affordable and Clean Energy
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-014-0354-8 (Access: Closed)