HISTORY OF INNOVATION

Consistently with the objectives of the curriculum in English in Innovation and marketing, the course proposes to students a historical and critical approach to the study of the effects of innovations on economic development.
In such a perspective, the educational aims of the course are: 1) making the students acquainted with historical debates on innovation; 2) provide the instruments to set theoretical problems in their proper historical context, and 3) understand the scope limiting conditions of innovation theories.
In particular, after a methodological introduction on the specificity of the historical approach, the course will alternate the study of historical debates on innovation, related theoretical contributions, and case studies showing the complexity of innovation processes.

Knowledge and understanding:
Knowing the main discontinuities in the history of innovation, from preindustrial times to the scientific and industrial revolutions.
Understanding the main issues of the debate on the history of innovation.
Understanding the peculiar character of historical research vs social sciences.

Ability to apply knowledge and understanding:
Ability to provide an historically consistent definition of innovation in different periods.
Ability to set correctly in the historical context the relationship between innovation and development.
Ability to define the scope limiting conditions of economic theories of innovation.

Judgement ability:
Ability to distinguish between radical and incremental innovation following the historical context.

Communication ability:
Ability to publicly present a research and to discuss it.

Learning ability:
Ability to read and discuss critically an historical text.
Ability to distinguish between historical rigour and scientific rigour.

Basic knowledge of general history at high-school level.

1 – Introduction. History and theory (Rowlinson-Hassard-Decker)
2 – A theory of the entrepreneur as an innovator (Langlois)
3 – What is entrepreneurial history? (Wadhwani-Jones)
4 – Pre-industrial forms of business (Epstein)
5 – Imitation and invention: the global sources of the Industrial Revolution (Berg)
6 – A case study: ceramics in the 1700s (Favero 2006b)
7 – Demand-side determinants of innovation: the role of industriousness (De Vries)
8 – A debate on British entrepreneurial failure (McCloskey-Sandberg)
9 – Organizational innovation: the managerial firm (Chandler)
10 – The multi-divisional enterprise and new forms of innovation (Williamson)
11 – The network form as neither market nor hierarchy (Powell)
12 – A debate on the origins of innovation and technological expectations (Rosenberg 1974, 1976)
13 – Resistance to innovation (Mokyr)
14 – From toys to instruments: new products and their use (Pantzar)
15 – The rise and fall of an innovative business (Favero 2006a)

Berg M., 2002, From Imitation to Invention: Creating Commodities in 18th-Century Britain, Economic History Review, 55(1): 1-30.
Chandler A.D., 1973, Decision Making and Modern Institutional Change, Journal of Economic History, 33(1): 1-15.
De Vries J., 1994, The Industrial Revolution and the Industrious Revolution, Journal of Economic History, 54(2): 249-270.
Epstein S.R., 1998, Craft guilds, apprenticeship and technological change in preindustrial Europe, Journal of Economic History, 58(3): 684-713.
Favero, G., 2006a, Benetton: Identifying an image, imagining an identity, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Dept. of Economics, WP 06/2006
Favero, G., 2006b, Old and new ceramics: Manufacturers, products and markets in the Venetian State (17th-18th centuries), in P. Lanaro (ed.), At the center of the Old World: Trade and
manufacturing in Venice and the Venetian Mainland, Toronto: Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies: 271-315
Langlois R., 2002, Schumpeter and the Obsolescence of the Entrepreneur, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, WP 19/2002.
McCloskey D.N. & Sandberg L.G., 1972, From damnation to redemption: Judgements on the late Victorian entrepreneur, Explorations in Economic History, 9: 89-108.
Mokyr, J., 1992, Technological Inertia in Economic History, The Journal of Economic History, 52(2): 355-338.
Pantzar M., 1997, Domestication of Everyday Life Technology: Dynamic Views on the Social Histories of Artifacts, Design Issues, 13(3): 62-95.
Powell W.W., 1990, Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization, Research in Organizational Behavior, 12: 295-336.
Rosenberg, N., 1974, Science, Invention and Economic Growth, The Economic Journal, 84(333): 90-108.
Rosenberg, N., 1976, On Technological Expectations, The Economic Journal, 86(843): 523-535.
Rowlinson M., Hassard J. & Decker S., 2014, Strategies for Organisational History: A Dialogue between Historical Theory and Organisation Theory, Academy of Management Review, 39(3): 250-274.
Wadhwani, R.D. & Jones, J., 2014, Schumpeter’s Plea: Historical Reasoning in Entrepreneurship Theory and Research, in R.D. Wadhwani & M. Bucheli (eds.), Organizations in Time: History, Theory, Methods, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 192-216.
Williamson O.E., 1981, The Modern Corporation: Origins, Evolution, Attributes, Journal of Economic Literature, 19 (4): 1537-68.

The final written test will be based on course handouts and on ALL the reference texts. The test will include three open questions, respectively on methods and theories, on debates and on the case studies.

Frontal lessons with slideshow, interactive discussion on readings and student presentations. Starting from the second class included, reference texts will be read in anticipation and discussed in class. Q&A sessions on texts will be scheduled during classes.

English

Handouts (slides) and all the texts will be made available online.

Ca’ Foscari abides by Italian Law (Law 17/1999; Law 170/2010) regarding support services and accommodation available to students with disabilities. This includes students with mobility, visual, hearing and other disabilities (Law 17/1999), and specific learning impairments (Law 170/2010). If you have a disability or impairment that requires accommodations (i.e., alternate testing, readers, note takers or interpreters) please contact the Disability and Accessibility Offices in Student Services: disabilita@unive.it.

written

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development