Innovation and skill dynamics: a life-cycle approach

Abstract

This article focuses on the institutional adjustments that facilitate the routinization of technological opportunities. We propose a life-cycle approach that accounts for the emergence, development, and transformation of new knowledge with special emphasis on the role of adaptive educational and training systems for the diffusion of skills that complement new technology. The article reconciles two empirical phenomena associated with radical technological breakthroughs: changes in the skill content within occupations and the process of knowledge systematization underpinning the adaptation of education and training. We claim that systematization is a crucial, but largely overlooked, element in the study of skill mismatches, inequalities, and successful takeoff of new technologies.

Technology and Occupations in Business Cycles

“…On the same line of research and focusing on the role of educational institutions, Ref. [49] investigates the link between the emergence of new skills related to radical new technologies and the adjustments made in formal education. In this framework, skills are defined as a combination of capacity to learn and know-how applied to a specific task in a specific context that is subject to change.…”

The role of local embeddedness and non-local knowledge in entrepreneurial activity

“…The expansion of the IT services sector beyond metropolitan areas (not least, due to an increased mobility of entrepreneurs) improved the opportunities for learning and obtaining relevant knowledge in non-core regions. Coupled with the adaptation of the educational system to the digital paradigm (Vona and Consoli 2015), this led to a decreased importance of metropolitan areas as learning regions, even if they still concentrated the majority of firms and employment opportunities. This would reduce benefits of employment experience in these regions for obtaining knowledge necessary to start a longer-surviving firm.…”

Sustaining Regional Advantages in Manufacturing: Skill Accumulation of Rural–Urban Migrant Workers in the Coastal Area of China

“…Cooperation among competitors in the provision of industry-specific skills is beneficial to establish training standards and also lowers the costs of investment in skills and information sharing [55]. Such relationships can improve a firm's innovation capability [56][57][58][59] and are the source of "collective efficiency" [60], i.e., competitive advantage generated by the local external economy and joint action.…”

“…and the strength of shared rules, conventions, and knowledge, can promote regional economic success [53]. As investors for human growth of laborers [1], these intermediary institutions limit the detrimental effects of market failures [55]. The high levels of close interaction and coalition amongst many diverse institutions [64,65] produces a high innovative capacity [66] and can promote knowledge diffusion between firms and knowledge-intensive institutions [65].…”