Working Paper #2012-001
Maastricht reflections on innovation
"Innovation is good for you" appears actually the common feature of most
science, technology and innovation studies over the last decades. This
appears, however surprising given the fact that innovation failure
rather than innovation success appears a much more common feature. Hence
the simple, but straightforward question which will be central in this
Tans lecture: could it be that innovation is not always good for you?
A frequently heard argument is that at a societal level, innovation is
renewing society’s dynamics and hence leading to higher levels of
economic development and welfare. A process of creative destruction
destroying maybe a few incumbents to the benefit though of many
newcomers. However, sometimes the exact opposite pattern: a process of
destructive innovation, benefiting a few at the expense of many, will
occur.
In this period of "crises" examples abound of such destructive creation
processes. In this Tanslecture some typical examples will be
highlighted: our unsustainable fossil-fuel based economic growth at the
global level; European monetary integration at the European level;
financial innovation at the sectoral level.
The Tans Lecture is organized every year to honour dr. J. Tans
(1912-1993), the founding father of Maastricht University.
- Keywords
-
- Innovation
- Creative Destruction
- Destructive Creation
- Economic Growth
- International Relations
- Financial Crisis
- JEL codes
-
- O17
- O31
- O33
- O43
- F55
- G01
Cite this as
APA 7th ed.Soete, L. (2012). Maastricht reflections on innovation (UNU-MERIT Working Paper No. 2012-001). UNU-MERIT. https://unu-merit.nl/publications/working-papers/abstract/?id=4639