Research Technology and the Rate and Direction of Innovation: A Taxonomy of Implications

Abstract

Innovation is fundamentally dependent on the support of research technology. Governments and organizations have been spending billions of dollars to develop research technologies such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Hadron Collider. Yet, our understanding of how specific attributes of research technologies affect the rate and direction of innovation, and hence economic growth, remains limited. In this paper, we take a first step towards providing a conceptual framework that evaluates the role of research technology attributes for the rate and direction of innovation. The model produces empirically testable implications that provide avenues for future research to inform policymakers and innovation managers through insights into the levers that could enhance innovation to stimulate economic growth.

Keywords: Research Technologies, Knowledge Production, Innovation

JEL Classification: O30, O31, O33, O39