Technology Push, Demand Pull And The Shaping Of Technological Paradigms - Patterns In The Development Of Computing Technology

An assumption generally subscribed in evolutionary economics is that new technological paradigms arise from advances is science and developments in technological knowledge. Demand only influences the selection among competing paradigms, and the course the paradigm after its inception. In this paper we argue that this view needs to be adapted. We demonstrate that in the history of computing technology in the 20th century a distinction can be made between periods in which either demand or knowledge development was the dominant enabler of innovation. In the demand enabled periods new technological (sub-) paradigms in computing technology have emerged as well.