The Evolutionary Complexity of Endogenous Innovation

The notion of endogenous innovation as the outcome of the creative response of firms to out-of-equilibrium conditions is the cornerstone of the new evolutionary complexity. In this book, Cristiano Antonelli elaborates, applies and tests, with his colleagues, the Schumpeterian framework established in the author’s previous work Endogenous Innovation: The Economics of an Emergent System Property.

The author carefully explores the role of the reactivity of firms to out-of-equilibrium conditions with a unique mix of econometric tools and simulation techniques. He examines the central role of knowledge externalities in shaping the likelihood of creative responses, and hence the generation of new knowledge and the introduction of innovations, as an alternative to adaptive responses that lead the system to equilibrium with no growth. In so doing, he confirms that innovation is the outcome of the interaction between individual decision-making and the endogenous and path-dependent properties of the system into which firms are embedded.

This original and insightful work will be required reading for all those working on evolutionary economics, complexity economics, and the economics of innovation and knowledge.