Overview

At its heart this book is about innovation and the innovation process. On the way, it considers aesthetics, design, creativity and the creative industries, and a number of other similar topics. Much of the existing economic literature on innovation has taken a particularly technological or functional viewpoint as to what sort of new products and processes are to be considered innovations. One of the key things this book shows is that there is a type of innovation, here labelled 'soft innovation', primarily concerned with changes in products (and perhaps processes) of an aesthetic or intellectual nature, that has largely been ignored in the study of innovation prevalent in economics. Examples of innovations that, as a result of this refocusing, are here placed at the centre of the analysis include: the writing and publishing of a new book, the writing, production, and launching of a new movie, the development and launch of a new advertising promotion, the design and production of a new range of furniture, and architectural activity in the generation of new built form designs. The realisation of the existence of soft innovation means that, not only is innovation more widespread than previously considered, but that it may also take a different form than commonly considered. Soft Innovation addresses key issues such as: * The measurement of the rate and extent of soft innovation,* The determinants of the rate and direction of soft innovation and its diffusion,* The impacts of soft innovation and diffusion upon outputs, productivity, employment, firm performance, trade, and economic welfare,* Policy, considering whether there is a rationale for government intervention in the soft innovation generation and diffusion processes, and if so what instruments can be used in such intervention?Soft Innovation breaks new ground in the study of innovation, and will be key reading for academics and researchers of Innovation, Marketing, and Design, as well as consultants, practitioners, and policy-makers concerned with the creative industries.

Full Product Details

Author:   Paul Stoneman (Professor, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick)
Publisher:   Oxford University Press
Imprint:   Oxford University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 16.10cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 24.00cm
Weight:   0.733kg
ISBN:  

9780199572489

ISBN 10:   0199572488
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   04 February 2010
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

1: Introduction Part I: The Nature and Extent of Soft Innovation 2: Defining Soft Innovation 3: Aggregate Measures of Soft Innovation 4: Soft Innovation in the Creative Industries: Books, Recorded Music, and Video Games 5: Soft Innovations Outside the Creative Industries: The Food, Pharmaceuticals, and Financial Industries Part II: The Economic Analysis of Soft Innovation 6: The Economic Analysis of TPP Innovation as a Foundation for the Analysis of Soft Innovation 7: The Supply of Soft Product Innovations 8: The Diffusion of Soft Innovations 9: Soft Innovation and Uncertainty: Variant Proliferation, Insurance Markets, and Finance 10: Soft Innovation, Intellectual Property Rights, Competition, and Welfare Part III: Impacts and Implications 11: The Impact of Soft Innovations on Firm Performance 12: Soft Innovation and Government Policy 13: Conclusions and Future Prospects

Reviews

a major work of scholarship in a critical field of industry and policy studies. * Stuart Cunningham, Journal of Cultural Economics *

a major work of scholarship in a critical field of industry and policy studies. Stuart Cunningham, Journal of Cultural Economics

Author Information

Professor Paul Stoneman is Research Professor in the Marketing and Strategic Management Group and Head of the Technological Innovations Research Unit in Warwick Business School. He has held visiting positions at Stanford and Nuffield College, Oxford. He has published widely on the Economics of Innovation especially as regards the diffusion of new technology and technology policy. He is author of one of the earliest studies of computerization in the UK as well as texts on technological change and technology policy, with a recent volume on technological diffusion. Past papers have appeared inter alia in the Rand Journal of Economics, the Economic Journal and The Journal of Industrial Economics.

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