Patterns of innovation in the chemical industry

Abstract

No abstract available. From the first page of the introduction: The analysis of innovation contained in this thesis differs considerably in both scope and aims from most analyses of innovation. It is important to discuss why the approach taken has been adopted, and to justify its usefulness. There is no absence of analyses of innovation and associated invention. Individual inventions have been examined, notedly by Jewkes and his co-authors (1); analyses have been made of innovation in selected industries, and this has been related to international trade in these industries (2); the detailed antecedents of individual technological innovations have been traced back in time, both for weapon systems and for civilian products (3); the spread of important new techniques, normally associated with large-scale capital investment, has been analysed (4). Much of this work has been done, either directly or indirectly, to answer specific questions of science policy, and these works have been influential factors in the formulation of science policy. The questions which may be answered by such approaches are important. Is money aimed at producing inventions (and, by implication at least, innovation) best invested in establishing large research centres, or in encouraging with suitable fiscal measures individual inventors (5)? What is the relationship between the concentration of an industry and its propensity to innovate? Should government finance be concentrated in closely targetted contracts, or in university research? What should the government attitude be towards industries, such as the pharmaceuticals industry, in which successful products enjoy what may appear super-normal profits while overall heavy research expenditure is incurred (6)?