What do we know about innovation in nanotechnology? Some propositions about an emerging field between hype and path-dependency |
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Authors: | Martin Meyer |
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Affiliation: | (1) Freeman Centre, SPRU, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QE, UK;(2) Steunpunt O&O Indicatoren van de Vlaamse Gemeenschap, K.U. Leuven, Leuven, Belgium;(3) Institute of Strategy and International Business, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland |
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Abstract: | This contribution formulates a number of propositions about the emergence of novel nanoscience and nanotechnology (N&N). Seeking
to complement recent work that aims to define a research agenda and draws on general insights from the innovation literature,
this paper aims to synthesize knowledge from innovation-related studies of the N&N field. More specifically, it is suggested
that N&N is often misconstrued as either a field of technology or an area of (broadly) converging technologies while evidence
to date suggests rather that N&N be considered a set of inter-related and overlapping about not necessarily merging technologies.
The role of instrumentation in connecting the various N&N fields is underlined. Finally, the question is raised whether change
in N&N tends to be incremental rather than discontinuous, being the result of technological path-dependencies and lock-ins
in industry-typical search regimes that are only slowly giving way to more boundary-crossing activities. |
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