Читать книгу Innovation Economics, Engineering and Management Handbook 1 - Группа авторов - Страница 53

Neoclassical economists have been interested in allocation problems within a general equilibrium context. Individual agents, by virtue of their preferences and information (notably technical knowledge), must make rational choices among the various alternatives proposed. From this perspective, conclusions on the organization of the economic system are known: allocating resources to achieve objectives. As these resources are always limited, choices have to be made. This being the case, this vision cannot correspond to an understanding of current economic development phenomena. Indeed, if firms or states intensify their efforts to allocate existing resources (capital, labor), and if each separate unit produces the same product with the same technique, they become much less competitive because of the repercussions on demand (consumers). Innovation therefore goes beyond the principle of allocating resources, in a context where the speed of technical change is constantly accelerating. It is less a question of knowing how to distribute resources related to labor and capital factors, than of creating and using diverse knowledge through learning processes. In addition, the information and specific knowledge that agents have is less important than their ability to make, have made or to use knowledge. The latter includes the ability to do new things, to cope with new situations and to gain access to new information. In short, companies must constantly look for new knowledge to use in production, such as new products or processes. To do this, they must be part of a Learning Economy (Lundvall and Borras 1999), which means that the current change does not lie in the intensive use of knowledge, but rather in the acceleration of the speed of change, which leads to a very rapid depreciation and obsolescence of skills and knowledge. Consequently, the essential factor in the competitiveness of firms lies more in the capacity to acquire new skills rather than in the possession of a certain stock of knowledge or access to information.