The sources of innovations – looking beyond technological opportunities*

^*This paper builds on Palmberg (2001; 2002) and research undertaken at the VTT Technology Studies. Financial support from the National Technology Agency and the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development is kindly acknowledged. I am indebted especially to Tarmo Lemola, Maureen McKelvey, Staffan Laestadius and two anonymous referees for valuable comments. All remaining misconceptions are mine alone.

Abstract

The concept ‘technological opportunity’ has been coined to capture the vitality of the underlying sciences and technologies as the sources of technical progress that firms draw upon during innovation. Nonetheless, less attention has been paid to the fact that the commercialisation of technical progress through innovations also depends on the ability to assimilate a range of other sources of innovations, related less to the sciences and technologies and more to characteristics of the market and broader environment in which firms innovate. This paper focuses on the sectoral diversity in such sources, and on the ways in which they are assimilated and turned into commercialised innovations. The paper contributes to the extant literature by drawing on a unique survey data on Finnish innovations. The results both confirm and also challenge, and further elaborate on certain ‘stylised facts’ on the relationships between technological opportunities and the sources of innovation across sectors.

^*This paper builds on Palmberg (2001; 2002) and research undertaken at the VTT Technology Studies. Financial support from the National Technology Agency and the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development is kindly acknowledged. I am indebted especially to Tarmo Lemola, Maureen McKelvey, Staffan Laestadius and two anonymous referees for valuable comments. All remaining misconceptions are mine alone.

Keywords:

• Technological opportunities
• Innovations
• Object-approach

Notes

^*This paper builds on Palmberg (2001; 2002) and research undertaken at the VTT Technology Studies. Financial support from the National Technology Agency and the Finnish National Fund for Research and Development is kindly acknowledged. I am indebted especially to Tarmo Lemola, Maureen McKelvey, Staffan Laestadius and two anonymous referees for valuable comments. All remaining misconceptions are mine alone.