The economic implications of exaptation

Nicholas Dew (), S. Sarasvathy and S. Venkataraman

Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2004, vol. 14, issue 1, 69-84

Abstract: Accounts of economic change recognize that markets create selective pressures for the adaptation of technologies in the direction of customer needs and production efficiencies. However, non-adaptational bases for technological change are rarely highlighted, despite their pervasiveness in the history of technical and economic change. In this paper the concept of exaptation -a feature co-opted for its present role from some other origin - is proposed as a characteristic element of technological change, and an important mechanism by which new markets for products and services are created by entrepreneurs. Exaptation is a missing but central concept linking the evolution of technology with the entrepreneurial creation of new markets and the concept of Knightian uncertainty. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin/Heidelberg 2004

Keywords: Exaptation; Evolution; Adaptation; Entrepreneurship; Knightian uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004
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DOI: 10.1007/s00191-003-0180-x

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