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Exploring the Black Box

Technology, Economics, and History

Nathan Rosenberg author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:10th Mar '94

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

Exploring the Black Box cover

This book presents a unique account of how technological change is generated and introduced into economic activity.

This book presents a unique account of how technological change is generated and the processes by which improved technologies are introduced into economic activity. Individual chapters explore the particular features of new technologies in different historical and sectoral contexts.The process of technological change takes a wide variety of forms. Propositions that may be accurate when referring to the pharmaceutical industry may be totally inappropriate when applied to the aircraft industry or to computers or forest products. The central theme of Nathan Rosenberg's new book is the idea that technological changes are often 'path dependent', in the sense that their form and direction tend to be influenced strongly by the particular sequence of earlier events out of which a new technology has emerged. The book advances the understanding of technological change by explictly recognising its essential diversity and path-dependent nature. Individual chapters explore the particular features of new technologies in different historical and sectoral contexts. This book presents a unique account of how technological change is generated and the processes by which improved technologies are introduced.

'If you read nothing else on technological innovation, you will not go wrong by reading Rosenberg. One of the great virtues of his work is that it is easily accessible to the general reader.' Nature

ISBN: 9780521459556

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 15mm

Weight: 390g

288 pages