Technological innovation system

The technological innovation system is a concept developed within the scientific field of innovation studies which serves to explain the nature and rate of technological change.^[1] A Technological Innovation System can be defined as ‘a dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific economic/industrial area under a particular institutional infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and utilization of technology’.^[2]

The approach may be applied to at least three levels of analysis: to a technology in the sense of a knowledge field, to a product or an artifact, or to a set of related products and artifacts aimed at satisfying a particular (societal) function’.^[3] With respect to the latter, the approach has especially proven itself in explaining why and how sustainable (energy) technologies have developed and diffused into a society, or have failed to do so.

Contents

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• 1Background
• 2Structures
• 3Dynamics
  • 3.1Seven system functions
  • 3.2Cumulative causation
  • 3.3Acquiring new technologies and capabilities
• 4See also
• 5References
  • 5.1Notes
  • 5.2Further reading