HISTORY OF INNOVATION

Consistently with the objectives of the curriculum in English in Innovation and marketing, the course proposes to students an 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, the first part of the course will focus on scholarly debates on the role of institutions and on the agency of consumers in making innovation possible. In the second part, students are required to discuss the historical issues related to the emergence of a knowledge economy in the light of such debates.

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 – Demand-side determinants of innovation : the role of industriousness (De Vries)
7 – A debate on British entrepreneurial failure (McCloskey-Sandberg).
8 – Organizational innovation: the managerial firm (Chandler).
9 – Solving Schumpeter's paradox: divisionalization and a new form of innovation (Williamson).
10 – The network form as neither market nor hierarchy (Powell).
11 – From toys to instruments: new products and their use (Pantzar)
12 – Technology and knowledge: the Enlightment (Mokyr, ch. 1-2).
13 - The factory system and the Industrial Revolution (Mokyr, ch. 3-4).
14 – Innovation, the household and the institutions (Mokyr, ch. 5-6).
15 – A knowledge economy and its origins (Mokyr, ch. 7).

Textbook:
Mokyr J., 2002, The gifts of Athena: Historical origins of the knowledge economy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691120133.

Articles and chapters:
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.
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.
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.
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 Th eory 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 historical methods (classes 1 and 2), on the scholarly debate on the history of innovation (classes 3 to 11), and on the historical emergence of a knowledge economy (classes 12 to 15).
Student presentations are on voluntary basis and there are limited places. Interested students will be assigned chapters of the textbook, and will be required to connect theoretical stands to the concerned historical issues. One additional point will be assigned on correct presentation, and added to the grade resulting from the written test if this is sufficient.

Frontal lessons with slideshow, interactive discussion on readings and student presentations.

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 "Cities, infrastructure and social capital" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development