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A cognitive model of innovation

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 22:03 authored by Paul NightingalePaul Nightingale
This paper develops a theoretical framework based on empirical case study research that explains the role of tacit knowledge in technical change and how scientific knowledge is used in innovation. It develops a theoretical argument that proposes that science cannot be directly applied to produce technology because science answers the wrong question. Innovation starts with a desired end result and attempts to find the unknown starting conditions that will achieve it. Scientific knowledge, by contrast, goes in the opposite direction, from known starting conditions to unknown end results. This difference in direction is overcome by following tacitly understood traditions of technological knowledge that co-evolve with technological paradigms, but are themselves outside the realm of science. The paper demonstrates how technologies are constructed socially' and embody sociological and political conceptions of problems and appropriate solutions, but the theory maintains a very realist perspective. The Cognitive approach treats knowledge as a capacity that is embodied in the brain, and embedded in socialised practices, using the metaphor of pattern'. The paper explores why scientific patterns cannot be perfectly extrapolated for complex, non-trivial technologies and shows why technical change is dependent on learnt tacit conceptions of similarity that cannot be reduced to information processing.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Research Policy

ISSN

0048-7333

Publisher

Research Policy

Issue

7

Volume

27

Page range

689-709

ISBN

0048-7333

Department affiliated with

  • SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

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