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Nightingale, Paul (2004) Technological capabilities, invisible infrastructure and the un-social construction of predictability: the overlooked fixed costs of useful research. Research Policy, 33 (9). pp. 1259-1284. ISSN 0048-7333
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
The paper explores the idea that unpredictability is a much more pervasive and important feature of technical change than is traditionally supposed. It explains how economically important interactions between scientific explanations and technology require the construction of very specific, artificially predictable conditions where explanations implications match technologies behaviour. The iterative construction of these localised predictable conditions from unpredictable starting materials relies on, generates, and is made easier by reusable social and physical infrastructure. The paper develops a non-tautological model of technological capabilities and provides a novel explanation for a range of empirical findings. Theoretical and policy implications are reported.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This paper steers between the crude `linear model of science leading to technology and the almost equally crude social shaping of technology model to argue for `moderate unpredictability as counteracting the simple transfer of science into technology systems. An outcome is to shed new light through redefining the nature of `technological capabilities, adding to SPRUs contribution to this field of analysis. |
| Schools and Departments: | University of Sussex Business School > SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) |
| Depositing User: | Paul Nightingale |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Feb 2012 19:04 |
| Last Modified: | 24 Sep 2012 14:01 |
| URI: | http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/19222 |