Building the Non-Linear Innovation Model: The Beginnings of Richard Nelson's Thought

Abstract

This article aims to show that science economists in the 1950s and 1960s did not develop the linear model of innovation, but rather adopted an interactionist representation of the links between science and technology, to examine their theoretical foundations, their historical relationship with the latest trends in the economics of technology and their consequences for recent debates over patent policy. From a discussion of Nelson's seminal and more recent articles on the economics of innovation, the contributions to the economics of innovation and technology made by authors who influenced or were influenced by Nelson's thinking or, more broadly, who belonged to Nelson are examined. your academic network. Narrative takes place, therefore, at both the historiographical and the political level. Based on Nelson's contributions, it is argued that the interactionist representation of the relationship between science and technology was based on an evolutionary approach, developed between the 1950s and 1960s, and was in keeping with the heritage of classical contributions from historians of science. and technology.