Innovation and the theory of fields

Neil Fligstein ()
Additional contact information
Neil Fligstein: University of California

AMS Review, 2021, vol. 11, issue 3, No 6, 272-289

Abstract: Abstract Innovation does not just involve the creation of new products, but also includes the need for new kinds of processes and organizations. Field theory can help us understand why some innovations are more piecemeal and others more revolutionary. It explicitly links innovation to the process of the emergence, adjustment, and transformation of markets (conceived of as fields). To illustrate this perspective, the case of the transition in the U.S. from a mortgage market dominated by savings and loan banks to the emergence of mortgage securitization dominated by the government sponsored enterprises and the largest private banks, is explicated. Field theory helps us understand the logic of this transition and the myriad players and innovations that helped produce a large part of what we consider to be modern finance. The case also shows the limits of economic theories of financial innovation and the sociology of finance. I end with a discussion of how field theory can inform subsequent research on innovation.

Keywords: Innovation; Fields; Markets; Finance; Mortgage securitization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s13162-021-00202-2 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:amsrev:v:11:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s13162-021-00202-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... gement/journal/13162

DOI: 10.1007/s13162-021-00202-2

Access Statistics for this article

AMS Review is currently edited by Manjit S. Yadav

More articles in AMS Review from Springer, Academy of Marketing Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().