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A conceptual history of innovation

In: The Elgar Companion to Innovation and Knowledge Creation

Author

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  • Benoît Godin

Abstract

Innovation is a concept that everyone understands spontaneously, or thinks they understand; that every theorist talks about and every government espouses. Yet, it has not always been so. For the last five hundred years, the concept innovation has been a dirty word. The history of the concept of innovation is an untold story. It is a story of myths and conceptual confusions. In this chapter, I study the ways in which thoughts on innovation of early modern society gave rise to innovation theory in the twentieth century. Namely, how, when and why a pejorative and morally connoted word shifted to a much-valued concept. I offer a history of the concept of innovation, going back to antiquity. A history that takes the use of the concept seriously: from polemical to instrumental to theoretical.

Suggested Citation

  • Benoît Godin, 2017. "A conceptual history of innovation," Chapters, in: Harald Bathelt & Patrick Cohendet & Sebastian Henn & Laurent Simon (ed.), The Elgar Companion to Innovation and Knowledge Creation, chapter 2, pages 25-32, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:15485_2
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    Cited by:

    1. Jonathan Labbé, 2020. "Venture capital risk, start-ups and innovation: the syndication of venture capital investments recipe [Capital-risque, start-ups et innovation : la recette du financement par syndication]," Post-Print hal-03000103, HAL.

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