Premium
Technological Diffusion: Alternative Theories and Historical Evidence
Author(s) -
Sarkar Jayati
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of economic surveys
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.657
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 1467-6419
pISSN - 0950-0804
DOI - 10.1111/1467-6419.00051
Subject(s) - divergence (linguistics) , variety (cybernetics) , convergence (economics) , technological change , process (computing) , diffusion of innovations , economics , diffusion , management science , empirical evidence , econometrics , neoclassical economics , computer science , sociology , epistemology , macroeconomics , social science , philosophy , linguistics , physics , thermodynamics , artificial intelligence , operating system
This paper presents an interpretive survey of the neoclassical and evolutionary approaches to modeling the process of technological diffusion, with an orientation that is distinct in two important respects from existing surveys. First, the present survey is designed to provide a comparative overview of the alternative approaches within a unified framework of analysis. The objective is to bring out the areas of convergence as well as divergence between the approaches, and address the issue of whether the approaches could be considered as complementary rather than as alternatives. Second, the survey attempts to link the theoretical methodologies to the variety of empirical and historical evidence, and evaluate how the theories best fit the evidence on the dynamics of the technological diffusion process.