IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/35254.html

Defining Innovatisation: The Case of NewSpace and the Changing Space Sector

Author

Listed:
  • Benoit Cornet
  • Marc-André Chavy-Macdonald
  • Dominique Foray

Abstract

The space sector has become far more dynamic and innovative, with new actors (e.g., start-ups, venture capital) entering and the ever-growing importance of private firms. In this paper we introduce a novel concept, innovatisation, to understand this phenomenon. Innovatisation describes the transformation of a sector between two modes. In a mode of technological achievements (TA), only technological (not economic) performance matters, primarily for prestige purposes; in innovation, customer preferences, commercial opportunities, and costs become essential. Studying the economics of Apollo and the commercialization attempts of the 1980s, we show how the space sector has long featured a logic of TA. Then, analyzing recent trends, we provide quantitative empirical evidence (e.g., costs) that innovation now shapes the sector, thanks to various driving forces. The driving forces behind the innovatisation process are identified building on Jones (2022) and the disruptive innovation theory.

Suggested Citation

  • Benoit Cornet & Marc-André Chavy-Macdonald & Dominique Foray, 2026. "Defining Innovatisation: The Case of NewSpace and the Changing Space Sector," NBER Working Papers 35254, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35254
    Note: PR
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w35254.pdf
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text is generally limited to series subscribers, however if the top level domain of the client browser is in a developing country or transition economy free access is provided. More information about subscriptions and free access is available at http://www.nber.org/wwphelp.html. Free access is also available to older working papers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • O38 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Government Policy

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:35254. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.