A Comparison of Veblen and Schumpeter on Technology

This paper aims at demonstrating the significance of two alternative approaches developed by Veblen and Schumpeter to technology underlying recent institutionalist and evolutionary stances. It should be mentioned that it is not the primary object of this paper to specify their clear-cut disagreement about the characterization of technology and the process of technical advance. Instead, it is engage with providing with an overall understanding of technological motion in capitalist accumulation processes by reconciling the two approaches in a meaningful way. Thus, this comparative analysis based upon their congruent and conflicting arguments presents us not only a general review and the solid foundations of an institutionalist approach to technological phenomena, but also an alternative conceptual framework for science and technology policy studies.