Knowledge and Innovation in Business and Industry: The Importance of Using Others (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology)

A common strike in contemporary economic policy, all over the world, is the ambition to utilize academic production of knowledge as a tool to create innovations and economic growth. However, as soon as we study this issue from a businesses perspective, the use of knowledge appears rather challengingHåkansson and Waluszewski offer a provocative and reflective treatise on the notion of knowledge and innovation in business and industry. Structuring their arguments around four case studies of innovation within four entirely different contexts, the authors invite the business-minded reader to consider the costs of adopting new knowledge and innovation within a business setting. The reading is provocative to the extent that it holds in question the long-held assumption that new knowledge and innovation are universally advantageous. It follows the tremor of an innovation as new knowledge reverberates through, or is dampened by the larger economic community including the cultural structures, the industrial standards, and the foundational assumptions that rule a particular economic domain. This reading places particular focus at the interfaces where the innovative agent connects to its customers, to its suppliers, and its competitors.This book will be of particular relevance to postgraduate students undertaking advanced courses in science and technology studies, innovation management, industrial marketing and purchasing, technological development and innovation systems.Knowledge and Innovation in Business and Industry: The Importance of Using Others (Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology), 1 was published 2007 under ISBN 9780415425292 and ISBN 0415425298.