Abstract
For the past 50 years or so, innovation (technical progress and the modernization of economies and societies) has been a ground-laying principle in the Western world, not least in Europe. More recently though, and with the arrival of the computer, the internet, smartphones, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, and the digitalization of the world, a real hype about innovation has emerged.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Greek mythology, Icarus dared to fly too close to the sun on wings of feathers and wax. In spite of warnings that the Sun would cause the wax to melt, he became ecstatic with the ability to fly and ignored the warning. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea.
- 2.
For various crimes against the gods, Sisyphus, the king of Corinth, was condemned to an eternity of hard labor. His assignment was to roll a great boulder to the top of a hill. Every time Sisyphus, by the greatest of exertion and toil, attained the summit, the boulder rolled back down and the labor and troubles started all over again.
- 3.
In this volume see the chapter entitled “Rethinking and Revolutionizing European Innovation by Means of Innovation Ecosystems.”
- 4.
The original “Great Transformation” is the seminal work of Karl Polanyi, which was first published in 1944. It deals with the social and political upheavals that took place in England during the rise of the market economy.
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Former senator and attorney general of the USA, Robert F. Kennedy so nicely paraphrased George Bernard Shaw’s quote: “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say why not?”
- 7.
The not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome refers to internal resistance in a company against externally developed knowledge. Although previous research has shown that firms can benefit significantly from external knowledge inflows in terms of firm performance and innovativeness, such positive effects from external knowledge sourcing cannot be taken for granted. The adaption of external knowledge requires flexible processes facilitating changes in the company’s vision, strategy, and culture and a welcoming attitude of employees toward externally generated knowledge. If such an attitude of the employees is missing, they can show resistance toward external knowledge and fail to realize the expected benefits for the company. This is the essence of the NIH syndrome. Hussinger and Wastyn (2011), ZEW STUDY, http://ftp.zew.de/pub/zew-docs/dp/dp11048.pdf.
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In the case of Germany, R.G. Heinze, 1998 has convincingly analyzed such mechanisms leading to a “blocked society” not able to react flexibly to change pressure and new opportunities.
- 9.
Innovationen den Weg ebnen (VCI, Sept. 14, 2015).
- 10.
An external cost occurs when producing or consuming a good or service implies imposing a cost upon a third party.
- 11.
A social welfare function describes the state of well-being of a society and ranks social states as more or less desirable for every effect from political measures or decisions. Inputs of the function include any variables considered to affect the economic welfare of the society as a whole.
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- 13.
The precautionary principle is detailed in Article 191 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (EU). It aims at ensuring a higher level of environmental protection through preventative decision taking in the case of risk. However, in practice, the scope of this principle is far wider and also covers consumer policy and European legislation concerning food and human, animal, and plant health.
- 14.
The USA, for example, has not adopted the precautionary principle but relies on several court decisions and scientific guidelines for risk regulation (e.g., the 1980 Benzine decision). Generally speaking, before risk regulation gets enacted in the USA, “significant risk” must be (scientifically) demonstrated. Hence, unlike the EU’s proactive approach, US regulation authorities wait for evidence of harm before regulating.
- 15.
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Gretschmann, K. (2016). Icarus or Sisyphus: Innovation Between Hype, Rebuff and New Sobriety. In: Gretschmann, K., Schepers, S. (eds) Revolutionising EU Innovation Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55554-0_3
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