Innovation Engines: Entrepreneurs and Enterprises in a Turbulent World (Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Management: Innovation in Engineering and Technology)

In an uncertain economy where business risk is significant, the company tends to rely more on its environment than to invest, for example, in all steps of technological creation; This can be explained by the fact that investments in the acquisition (ownership) of production resources are less expensive than those implied in the formation of these resources; which also explains the attractiveness (in an open economy) of regions with abundant scientific and technical resources. To understand and analyze the innovation process in order to better design and launch new goods, services and technologies, one has to consider the creative dimension of the individual, the business and the organization in general. In new approaches to innovation, the entrepreneur and the company are analyzed through their skills, and their function of resource generation; Innovation thus becomes endogenous, gradual or radical, integrated in a complex process with many feedbacks and interactions. The innovative organization (small or large) is presented in this book as a dynamic system composed of specific and diverse skills (including those of the contractor, engineers or managers). By acquiring, combining and mobilizing these skills, the innovative agent (entrepreneur or company) can create technological resources and develop relations with its environment. Hence the importance of management in design, implementation, protection of intellectual property as well as of the development of new goods, services and technology, commercial and organizational models. Cover -- Half-Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction: Innovation Engines: Entrepreneurs and Enterprises in a Turbulent World -- Bibliography -- 1. Innovation Strategies and Entrepreneurial Dynamics -- 1.1. The entrepreneur: the key player in innovation -- 1.1.1. By their very nature, every entrepreneur takes a risk dependent on innovation -- 1.1.2. Innovation restores a range of logical structures and practices in entrepreneurial action -- 1.2. Industrial analysis of innovation -- 1.2.1. The analytical approach: the SCP model -- 1.2.2. The institutional approach: mesosystems -- 1.3. The three eras of industrial capitalism -- 1.3.1. The origins of industrial capitalism -- 1.3.2. The development of industrial capitalism: the concept of generations -- 1.4. Extensive and intensive stages -- 1.4.1. The extensive stage -- 1.4.2. The intensive stage -- 1.5. Innovation: between order and progress -- 1.5.1. The role of ideologies -- 1.5.2. The role of the "zeitgeist", the spirit of the age -- 1.6. Innovation and the "technical age": a Pandora's box? -- 1.6.1. The innovative entrepreneur: is there an ideal type? -- 1.6.2. Types of innovative entrepreneur -- 1.6.3. The capabilities of the innovative entrepreneur -- 1.7. The major strategic choices -- 1.7.1. Breakthrough innovation or adaptive development? -- 1.7.2. Dependence or individuality? ("One of a kind") -- 1.8. The spread of innovation -- 1.8.1. The transfer: the basis of national technological policy -- 1.8.2. The subsidiary: an instrument of the industrial strategy of groups -- 1.8.3. The region: a hub of technological development -- 1.9. Conclusion -- 1.10. Bibliography -- 2. Innovative Milieus and Innovative Entrepreneurship -- 2.1. The innovative milieu and proximities -- 2.1.1. The concept of the innovative milieu -- 2.1.2. Proximity: from space to organization In an uncertain economy where business risk is high, innovation is at the heart of business. To understand the process of innovation, from the design and development of new products to the price of the creative dimension of the individual, studying the company and the organization is essential. In new approaches to innovation, the entrepreneur and the company are defined by their skills. The innovative organization is presented in this book as a dynamic system composed of specific and diversified skills. By acquiring, combining and mobilizing these skills, the innovative agent can create technological resources and develop relationships within their environment. Managing the design, application and protection of intellectual property is an important aspect of this, as is the development of new goods, services and technology models, businesses and organizations. Dimitri Uzunidis is Professor in Political Economy. He is currently President of the Research Network on Innovation in Paris, France. Book jacket