The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope Quotes

“examples of ‘unsatisfactory innovation’ reflecting a combination of uneven market power and uneven distribution of competences between the producer and the user.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“innovation as an interactive process where the feedback from users’ experience was seen as crucial for the success of innovation, and on this basis it demonstrated that an economy characterized either by ‘pure markets’ or ‘pure hierarchies’ would experience little (product) innovation.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“In the first fire engines, a boy was constantly employed to open and shut alternately the communication between the boiler and the cylinder, according as the piston either ascended or descended. One of those boys, who loved to play with his companions, observed that, by tying a string from the handle of the valve which opened this communication to another part of the machine, the valve would open and shut without his assistance, and leave him at liberty to divert himself with his play-fellows.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“Adam Smith (1776, 8) on the DUI-mode of learning: A great part of the machines made use of in those manufactures in which labour is most subdivided, were originally the invention of common workmen, who, being each of them employed in some very simple operation, naturally turned their thoughts towards finding out easier and readier methods of performing it.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“Second, work organization forms that delegate responsibility for problem solving to a wide range of employees could be more successful both in upgrading the competences of workers and in transforming ideas into new products and processes.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“First, forms of work organization that stimulate interaction among agents with a diverse set of experiences and competences could be more creative, leading to the development of original ideas for new products and processes.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“there may be marked differences among various sectors with regard to their knowledge base. Some science-intensive sectors base their activities mainly on codified knowledge, while others operate and compete mainly on the basis of unstructured and experience-based implicit knowledge. But there are no pure cases. Even in the most strongly science-based sectors, tacit knowledge will be a key element in their competitive position, and conversely, it is difficult to find firms in the OECD area that can avoid completely the need to codify.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“it is useful to distinguish between tacit knowledge that can be made explicit – tacit for lack of incentives – and knowledge that cannot be made explicit – tacit by nature (Cowan et al. 2000).”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“Attempts to use information technology to develop expert systems show that it is difficult and costly to transform expert skills into information that can be used by others.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“The firm’s capability to learn reflects the way it is organized. The movement away from tall hierarchies with vertical flows of information towards more flat organizations with horizontal flows of information is one aspect of the learning economy. Other elements relate to the circulation of personnel between departments and functions and the broad definition of jobs.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“workers and consumers tend to become passive beneficiaries or victims in relation to new technology rather than subjects taking active part in the process of innovation. It is, however, not self-evident that such a division of labour is ‘natural’ and appropriate. Active and competent final users might enhance the innovative capability of a national system of innovation.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“Introducing the final users of technology into the system The classical actors studied in innovation studies are individual entrepreneurs and the R&D laboratories of big firms. Secondary parts may be played by scientists and policymakers. The user–producer approach points to the fact that ‘final users’ in terms of workers, consumers and the public sector may have a role to play in relation to innovation.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“Flows and stocks in the national system of innovation Earlier we pointed out that the flows within the system of innovation take the form of complex and systemic information – messages difficult to translate into quantities. This is also true for the stocks of the system. Knowledge, scientific as well as know-how and tacit knowledge, is difficult to measure. Other important ‘stocks’ may be the inventiveness and creativity of individuals and organizations, and those are even more difficult to assess in quantitative terms.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“How do the ‘final users’ – workers and consumers – influence innovational activities? A strengthening of their competence and influence might have dramatic effects on the innovative capability of the economy.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“The supply school underestimates the active role of users in the innovation process. The demand school does not distinguish demand as a quantitative category from user needs as a qualitative category.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“a tendency towards producer dominance. In at least two of the cases, the lack of competence on the user side was reinforcing the unsatisfactory trajectory of innovations. This pattern might inspire a technology policy that is more oriented towards strengthening the competence of users than the supply-oriented technology policy dominating today. An extension of such a new orientation that encompasses the ‘final users’, workers and consumers might have radical implications.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“We believe that the unsatisfactory direction of innovations would have been changed earlier: •If the users had coordinated their procurement of equipment, •If the users had had a stronger competence in relation to electronics-based regulation systems, and •If the technology had been less systemic and complex.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope

“One explanation of such deviations between a satisfactory development and the actual development might be rooted in the specific user–producer relationships prevailing. There are several factors that promote stability and even inertia in those relationships. The costs involved in establishing new channels and codes of information work in this direction. So do the organized markets, where patterns of domination and mutual trust will reinforce stable relationships and make changes difficult to achieve.”
― Bengt-Åke Lundvall, The Learning Economy and the Economics of Hope