Rethinking invention: cognition and the economics of technological creativity

Abstract

Economists have typically not devoted much attention to the act of invention. This paper attempts to redress this situation by exploring a form of cognition, analogical transfer, which is thought by some researchers to lie at the heart of successful creativity. An analogical transfer is said to have occurred when information and experiences from one known situation is retrieved and utilized in the search for the solution to an entirely different situation. This paper shows how such analogical thought can give rise to a theoretical framework, in which disparate factors pertaining to technological creativity can be pieced together to yield an explanation of the level of inventive output experienced.

New Institutional Economics' contribution to strategic groups analysis

“…Thus analogical reasoning focuses on similarities about the relationships between objects in source and target domains, rather than the similarities in the attributes of the objects (Tsoukas, 1993). Recent research suggest that metaphors and analogical reasoning are powerful devices to generate research hypotheses and develop new theory (Cornelissen, 2005;Magee, 2005). In a nutshell, the analogy we suggest in this paper is that analyzing structures within industries is similar to analyzing structures within national economies and can be arranged in much the same way.…”

Innovative pandanus-tool folding by New Caledonian crows

“…Individual NC crows in the wild are also strongly lateralised for the side of the head on which they hold tools (Hunt and Gray 2004;Rutledge and Hunt 2004). Routinised actions may allow more efficient processing of information by the brain (James 1890;Verplanken and Aarts 1999;Magee 2005). They are thought to be a form of goal-directed automatic behaviour and mentally represented as links between goals and actions (Bargh 1997;Aarts and Dijksterhuis 2000).…”

“…This is because the contribution to technological evolution by most individuals is not behavioural innovation but the maintenance of current technology through its reproduction and use (Point 3 above). Technological evolution in humans is probably based on a range of capabilities like accurate social learning, analogical reasoning and a disposition for basic tool use de Beaune 2004;Magee 2005;Hunt et al 2007). It also depends on the ability of individuals to accurately reproduce current technology until new technology comes along.…”

Impact of Subjective Well-Being on Success of Technological Knowledge Creation among Independent Inventors in Developing Countries: A First Look at Sri Lanka

“…Further, this contradicting behavior of the independent inventors in lower-and middle-income countries raises the significant theoretical questions over the existing definitions of "success". Even though success of inventors is measured by external outcomes, invention is a psychological outcome of technological creativity of a person's mind Magee [39]. According to the psychological perspective, the existing objective success measures are trying to measure the subjective creative process only through the external achievements.…”