Technological Paradigms: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

The special issue is introduced and contextualised. Technological paradigms emerged as science push models of innovation were being displaced by demand pull models that justified a more international, market-focussed political economy. Technological paradigms help explain the strengths and weaknesses of both models and why the governance choice is not between either markets or governments, but an appropriate mixture of both. While technological paradigms have successfully shifted policy and management attention to building stocks of knowledge, they still have substantial underexploited analytical potential.