We contribute to the debate on innovation theory and policy by exploring, through the interpretative framework provided by Lane and Maxfield’s theory of innovation (1996, 2005, this volume), a set of case studies concerning the implementation of a new technology for system automation and its incorporation into agent-artifact space (Lane & Maxfield, 1997). Our purposes are on the one hand, to illustrate to what extent this theoretical approach can help explain innovation processes, and, on the other, to derive some general implications for innovation theory. By focusing on agents involved in different kinds of interactions around the same technology, we introduce and compare different practices according to which a new technology can be incorporated into the existing structure of agent-artifact space, and we discuss some of the complexities involved in processes of technological adoption and diffusion, which are often modelled in excessively simplistic terms.
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Rossi, F., Bertossi, P., Gurisatti, P., Sovieni, L. (2009). Incorporating a New Technology into Agent-Artifact Space: The Case of Control System Automation in Europe. In: Lane, D., Pumain, D., van der Leeuw, S.E., West, G. (eds) Complexity Perspectives in Innovation and Social Change. Methodos Series, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-9663-1_11
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