Working Paper: NBER ID: w8947
Authors: Michael R. Darby; Lynne G. Zucker
Abstract: Most firms achieve perfective progress, incrementally improving commodities or productivity. But technological progress is concentrated in a few firms achieving metamorphic progress: forming or transforming industries with technological breakthroughs (e.g., biotechnology, lasers, semiconductors, nanotechnology). Unless congruent with incumbents' science and technology base, metamorphic progress promotes entry. Scientific breakthroughs embodied in discovering scientists, protected by natural excludability, and transferred by learning-by-doing-with at the bench generally drive metamorphic progress. Embodied knowledge is rivalrous and leads to entry and industry dominance by star-scientist-linked firms. Incorporating this scientific-entrepreneurial process is essential to improving - if not transforming - endogenous growth models.
Keywords: Technological Progress; Metamorphic Progress; Industry Transformation; Biotechnology
JEL Codes: O30; L11; M13
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| scientific breakthroughs (O36) | industry transformation (L16) |
| scientific breakthroughs (O36) | firm entry (M13) |
| scientific breakthroughs (O36) | industry dominance (L19) |
| metamorphic progress (B52) | formation of new industries (O25) |
| metamorphic progress (B52) | transformation of existing industries (O14) |