The Reaper and the Scanner: Adoption of New Technologies and the Nature of Incremental Innovations

Francesco Lissoni

No 116, KITeS Working Papers from KITeS, Centre for Knowledge, Internationalization and Technology Studies, Universita' Bocconi, Milano, Italy

Abstract: Widespread adoption of a new capital-embodied technology often requires a continuous flow of incremental innovations, aimed at making renting the new machine a viable alternative to buying it, or at dividing it up in modular elements, and possibly allowing for product range extension. Incremental innovations of this kind are quite different from those considered by diffusion models based upon threshold models of adoption, as illustrated both by a re-visitation of Paul David's classic paper on the diffusion of the mechanical repaer, and my own study on electronic prepress devices.

Keywords: Innovation adoption; Diffusion; Technological interralatedness; Incremental innovations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O31 O33 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 27 pages
Date: 2000-09, Revised 2000-09
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