Critical Studies of Innovation: Alternative Approaches to the Pro-innovation Bias

347 Pages·2017·3.51 MB·English

by  Benoit Godin

Critical Studies of Innovation

Critical Studies of
Innovation
Alternative Approaches to the
Pro-Innovation Bias
Edited by
Benoît Godin
Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS),
Canada
Dominique Vinck
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Cheltenham, UK • Northampton, MA, USA
© Benoît Godin and Dominique Vinck 2017
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical or photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior
permission of the publisher.
Published by
Edward Elgar Publishing Limited
The Lypiatts
15 Lansdown Road
Cheltenham
Glos GL50 2JA
UK
Edward Elgar Publishing, Inc.
William Pratt House
9 Dewey Court
Northampton
Massachusetts 01060
USA
A catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016959927
This book is available electronically in the
Social and Political Science subject collection
DOI 10.4337/9781785367229
ISBN 978 1 78536 696 3 (cased)
ISBN 978 1 78536 722 9 (eBook)
Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire
Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables viii
List of contributors ix
Introduction: innovation – from the forbidden to a cliché 1
Benoît Godin and Dominique Vinck
PART I PROBLEMATIC FRAMEWORKS AND
NARRATIVES OF INNOVATION
1 Why is imitation not innovation? 17
Benoît Godin
2 ‘Innovation fads’ as an alternative research topic to
pro-innovation bias: the examples of Jugaad and Reverse
Innovation 33
Gérald Gaglio
3 ‘Best practices’ as mimesis? Innovation policies in peripheral
countries 48
Tiago Brandão and Carolina Bagattolli
4 Innovation and the political state: beyond the myth of
technologies and markets 68
Sebastian M. Pfotenhauer and Joakim Juhl
PART II WHAT IS LEFT WITH THE PRO-INNOVATION
BIAS?
5 Moving towards innovation through withdrawal: the neglect of
destruction 97
Frédéric Goulet and Dominique Vinck
6 Comparing two cases of outlaw innovation: file sharing and
legal highs 115
Johan Söderberg
v
vi Critical studies of innovation
7 Unattended consequences of innovation 137
Karl-Erik Sveiby
PART III REACTIONS TO INNOVATION
8 Resistance as a latent factor of innovation 159
Martin W. Bauer
9 Socio-technical dynamics of counter-hegemony and resistance 182
Hernan Thomas, Lucas Becerra and Santiago Garrido
10 ‘No’ and ‘slow’ innovation strategies as a response to increased
innovation speed 201
Karl-Heinz Leitner
PART IV ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORKS
11 Learning thanks to innovation failure 221
Dominique Vinck
12 The economic rationality of NOvative behavior 240
Carolina Cañibano, María-Isabel Encinar and Félix-Fernando
Muñoz
13 Regulatory enforcement as sociotechnical systems maintenance 257
Lee Vinsel
14 A discourse analysis of innovation in academic management
literature 276
Beata Segercrantz, Karl-Erik Sveiby and Karin Berglund
15 Physics or biology as models for the study of innovation 296
John Langrish
Conclusion: towards critical studies of innovation 319
Benoît Godin and Dominique Vinck
Index 323
Figures
8.1 ( a) Global trends (1977–2011) in acceptance of nuclear
power and (b) changing annual projections of nuclear energy
produced worldwide by the year 2000 169
8.2 ( a) Diffusion of GM soya among the world’s largest export
producers and (b) participation of soya production on the
world market for Brazil, Argentina and the USA from the
1990s to 2011 172
8.3 ( a) Index of optimism about various technological changes
across Europe and (b) flow of attention to and evaluation of
computers and IT since 1960 in UK news 174
10.1 Innovation output in Germany 205
12.1 The internal and external realities of agents 250
vii
Tables
3.1 Comparative grid of policy instruments 56
4.1 Four research directions for the Innovation State 89
7.1 E xamples of undesirable consequences for change recipients
caused by change agents’ actions 149
8.1 Summary of strategic effects of resistance on technology 170
9.1 Classification of actions of socio-technical resistance 197
12.1 T heoretical combinations of action goals and action
outcomes 243
14.1 Drivers of innovation 282
14.2 Practices of innovation 285
14.3 Effects of innovation 288
14.4 Academic management discourses of innovation 290
15.1 Classification of 80 effects 305
15.2 Case studies of innovation 306
viii
Contributors
Carolina Bagattolli, Associated Professor, Department of Economics,
Public Policy Postgraduate Program, Federal University of Paraná, Brazil
Martin W. Bauer, Professor in Social Psychology, London School of
Economics, London, UK
Lucas Becerra, Associate Professor, Instituto de Estudios sobre la Ciencia
y la Tecnología, National Universidad of Quilmes, Argentine
Karin Berglund, Professor of Business with specialisation in
Entrepreneurship, Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University,
Stockholm, Sweden
Tiago Brandão, Integrated Researcher, Instituto de História
Contemporânea  – FCSH/NOVA, Faculty of Social Sciences and
Humanities, New University of Lisbon, Portugal
Carolina Cañibano, Research Fellow, INGENIO (CSIC-UPV), Universitat
Politècnica de València, Spain
María-Isabel Encinar, Senior Lecturer, Departamento de Análisis
Económico: Teoría Económica e Historia Económica, Universidad
Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Gérald Gaglio, Assistant Professor, Technological University of Troyes,
France
Santiago Garrido, Research Assistant of the CONICET, Instituto de
Estudios sobre la Ciencia y la Tecnología, National Universidad of
Quilmes, Argentine
Benoît Godin, Professor of Science Studies, CSIIC, Institut national de la
recherche scientifique (INRS), Montreal, Canada
Frédéric Goulet, Researcher, Agricultural Research Centre for International
Development (CIRAD), Montpellier, France
Joakim Juhl, Assistant Professor, Aalborg University, Copenhagen,
Denmark and Research Associate, Program on Science, Technology and
Society, Harvard University, Boston, USA
ix