How do new industries emerge? This paper aims to answer this question by analyzing the key actors in this process. We focus on the new industry of service robot. By using data of Japanese patent applications, we analyze the role of new firms and of collaborations. We find that the emergence of...

This unique Handbook explores both the economics of the firm and the theory of the firm, two areas which are traditionally treated separately in the literature. On the one hand, the former refers to the structure, organization and boundaries of the firm, while the latter is devoted to the...

Although heterogeneity in the performance of firms is a well-established stylized fact, we still lack full understanding of its origins and the reasons why it persists. Instead of assuming that performance differences are exogenous, this article focuses on two endogenous strategies--innovation...

Preface -- 1. Innovation Beyond Technology – Introduction -- 2. Reimagining Innovation -- 3. 'Innovation’ as an adaptation of ‘Progress’: Revisiting the epistemological and historical contexts of these terms -- 4. The Light and Shadow of the Fourth Industrial Revolution -- 5. How...