The steam engine is widely regarded as the icon of the Industrial Revolution and a prime example of a “General Purpose Technology,” and yet its contribution to growth is far from transparent. This paper examines the role that a particular innovative design in steam power, the Corliss engine,...

The recent 'scientification' of commercial technology has brought the interface between universities and industry into sharp focus. In particular, academic entrepreneurship, i.e., the variety of ways in which academics take direct part in the commercialization of research, is widely discussed....

The placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized clinical trial (RCT) holds unique advantages for evaluating medical technologies, and figures prominently in clinical drug investigations. However, medicine, like other social sectors, has experienced a movement toward evidence-based practice and...

The role of science or technology in economic development is discussed inthe context of the world economy. Two myths that have dominated thinking about technology in Latin America are examined. The role of the firm in the formulation of strategies for technological change and the requisite of...

The central concern of this paper is to show that medical innovations have depended heavily on breaking down barriers that have long prevailed in the academic world, in the form of disciplinary boundaries that have coalesced into separate departments; to be specific, some of the biggest...

This book focuses on technological policies, in other words all public interventions intended to influence the intensity, composition and direction of technological innovations within a given entity (region, country or group of countries). The editor has gathered together many of the leading...