Alessandro Nuvolari

Mapping Technological Trajectories as Patent Citation Networks: An Application to Data Communication Standards

We use patent citation networks to study the dynamics of technical change in Ethernet, a standard for data communication. We first consider the evolution of the broad technological system of local area networks (LANs) and we identify the most significant inventions within the specific subfield of Ethernet. Then we analyse the structure of connectivity of patent citation networks to reconstruct the main technological trajectories in this subfield. Our results suggest that these technological trajectories are characterized by the presence of a number of interconnected technological environments which cluster following an engineering logic. These clusters include the most significant patents related to ‘milestones inventions’ in the evolution of the LAN technology. Thus, our analysis of the structure of connectivity in patent citation networks seems appropriate to capture both the cumulativeness associated to the development of a specific technology and the significant discontinuities that punctuate the trajectory, as well as the technological interrelatedness characterising large technical systems.

Inventive Activities, Patents and Early Industrialisation: A Synthesis of Research Issues

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of recent research on the connection between patent systems and inventive activities in the early phases of industrialization. Perhaps surprisingly, no consensus has been reached yet as to whether the emergence of modern patent systems exerted a favourable impact on inventive activities. However, the recent literature has shed light on a number of important features concerning the functioning of patent systems and the nature of innovation processes in this period. The concluding section of the paper flags some promising directions for further research.

Economic Growth in England, 1250-1850: Some New Estimates Using a Demand Side Approach

Using the demand side approach we construct a new set of estimatesof per capita agricultural output and per capita GDP for England overthe period 1250-1850. Our estimates of per capita GDP suggest that thepattern of long run growth of the English economy can be interpretedwith a periodization in three historical stages. The first stage, coveringthe period 1250-1580, is a Malthusian phase with no positive growth. Thesecond stage, comprising the period 1580-1780, is an intermediate phasewhere the English economy is able to relax some of the Malthusian constraints,attaining a positive growth rate (although our estimate of thegrowth rate for this period is lower than that proposed by Maddison andmore recently by Broadberry, Campbell, Klein, Overton and van Leeuwen).The third stage covering the post 1780 period is represented by theindustrial revolution and by the definitive consolidation of a developmentpattern characterized by a steady positive growth rate.

Technical choice, innovation, and British steam engineering, 1800–501

The development of the high-pressure expansive engine represented a watershed in the evolution of steam power technology, allowing the attainment of major fuel economies. In Britain, Cornish engineers took the lead in the exploration of this specific technological trajectory. Notwithstanding its superior fuel efficiency was immediately widely discussed, the high-pressure expansive engine did not find widespread application in other steam-using regions (in particular in Lancashire), where the Watt low-pressure engine continued to be the favourite option. This article provides a reassessment of the factors accounting for the precocious adoption of the high-pressure steam engine in Cornwall and for its delayed fortune in the rest of Britain.

The Making of Steam Power Technology: A Study of Technical Change during the British Industrial Revolution

Writing in 1845 Friedrich Engels (and with him many other informed contemporaries) had few hesitations in pointing out the driving forces of the epochal transformation he was witnessing: The history of the proletariat in England begins with the second half of the last century, with the invention of the steam engine and the machinery for working cotton. These inventions gave rise, as is well known to an industrial revolution, a revolution which altered the whole civil society; one, the historical importance of which is only now beginning to be recognized.

Traditional Versus Heterodox Motives for Academic Patenting: Evidence from the Netherlands

This paper examines what motivates university researchers to patent the results of collaborative research with business firms. We provide evidence of the existence of a motivational academic patenting space comprising (i) an industry-driven domain related to traditional-market motives (protection of inventions that will be commercialized); (ii) a university-driven domain driven by various (“heterodox”) motives related mostly to signalling specific research competences and (iii) a “hybrid” publicly driven domain related to projects aligned to the research agendas of public sponsors. These three types of motivations reflect the connections between academic patenting and different types of innovation, and the roles of industry partners in proposing, financing and performing specific research projects. We use data from 16 in depth case studies of innovations developed by Dutch universities to provide preliminary empirical evidence of this typology of motivational spaces for patenting university knowledge.

Independent invention in Italy during the Liberal age, 1861-1913

This article examines the phenomenon of independent invention in Italy during the Liberal Age (1861–1913). It makes use of a new dataset comprising all patents granted in Italy in five benchmark years: 1864–5, 1881, 1891, 1902, and 1911. The following exercises are carried out. First, an examination is undertaken of the shares of independent, corporate, and foreign inventions and their evolution over time and across industries. Second, by exploiting the peculiarities of Italian patent legislation, which was characterized by relatively cheap fees and a flexible renewal scheme, the relative quality of independent and corporate patents is assessed. The results indicate that in Italy independent inventors made an important contribution to technological change in terms of number of patents, but the quality of their patents was significantly lower than that of firms and of foreign patentees.

Diffusing New Technology Without Dissipating Rents: Some Historical Case Studies of Knowledge Sharing

The diffusion of innovations is supposed to dissipate inventors’ rents. Yet in many documented cases, inventors freely shared knowledge with rivals, including in steam engines, iron and steel production and textile machinery. Using a model and case studies, this paper explores why sharing did not eliminate inventors’ incentives. Each new technology coexisted with an alternative for one or more decades. This allowed inventors to earn high rents while sharing knowledge, making major productivity gains. In contrast, patents generated little value. The technology diffusion literature suggests that such circumstances are common during the early stages of a technology. This has important implications for innovation policy.

The diffusion of the steam engine in eighteenth-century Britain

This book focuses on knowledge-based economies and attempts to analyze dynamic innovation driven processes within those economies. It shows that evolutionary economics, and in particular the strand of applied industry and innovation studies often called Neo-Schumpeterian economics, has left the nursery of new academic approaches and is able to offer important insights for the understanding of socio-economic processes of change and development having a strong impact on economic reality all over the world. The contributions are summarized under four major sections – knowledge and cognition, studies of knowledge-based industries, the geographical dimension of knowledge-based economies and measuring and modelling for knowledge-based economies – and give a broad overview of the prolific research being undertaken in applied evolutionary economics.