Innovations Lead To Economic Crises

This book examines the link between innovation and economic crises through a systemic philosophy of economic history. Taking the end of the Roman Empire as its starting point, the author guides readers through six economic crises that have occurred up to the present day and uncovers how these may have been triggered by a number of political, economic and technological innovations. The author presents analyses on the Dutch tulip bubble of 1637, the Mississippi bubble in eighteenth-century France, the development of the first limited liability company and the world’s first stock exchange before going on to discuss the latest economic crisis and its links with globalisation and social connectivity following the technological advancement of the internet. The author concludes by explaining how we can use knowledge of the links between innovation and crises to frame a vital new model for policy makers and political leaders. The result is a fascinating insight into the cause of economic crises which will be of particular interest to students and researchers of economic history, financial crises, innovation and political science.

The recent financial and economic crisis has spurred a lot of interest among scholars and public audience. Strangely enough, the impact of the crisis on innovation has been largely underestimated. This books can be regarded as a complementary reading for those interested in the effect of the crisis with a particular focus on Europe.

In this innovative book, Hideko Magara brings together an expert team to explore both the possibilities and difficulties of transitioning from a neoliberal policy regime to an alternative regime through drastic policy innovations. The authors argue tha

In mid-May 1997, a financial crisis erupted in Asia after an attack by private investors on the baht, the Thai currency. The crisis spread quickly across the region, where investor confidence plummeted, resulting in massive capital outflows, stock market collapses, high unemployment, and even insurrection. The Asian economic miracle that had stimulated so much awe and even dread, now invoked pity and apprehension in greater measure. The contributors to this volume investigated change in the innovation and production systems of Asian states in response to economic and political upheaval. They conducted empirical studies of several regional industries - autos, semiconductors, and hard disk drives - and seven different national economies: China, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Taiwan. In the face of crisis and global competition, the Asian states superimposed change at the margins, seeking unique technohybrid solutions to build capabilities to compete in local, regional, and even global markets.

With the economic problems facing Western economics during the last decade, theories about an alleged forty-five to sixty years' pulsation in economic life (the Kondratieff-Schumpeter cycle) have experienced a remarkable renaissance. Based on a new econometric test method, the author argues that long waves can be identified not only in price series but also in the aggregate output of a number of key industrialized countries. The author's own research corroborates Schumpeter's hypothesis that, far from being caused by a flash of genius, radical innovations occur in clusters, interacting with economic fluctuations and social change.

The fourth industrial revolution is developing globally, with no geographical centre. It is also taking place at enormous speed. This development will shape the workplaces of the future, which will be entirely different from the workplaces created by the first, second and third industrial revolutions. Industry created the industrial worker. The knowledge society will create a new type of "industrial worker", the knowledge worker. While the third industrial revolution was concerned with the digitalization of work, in the fourth industrial revolution, robots will bring about the informatization of work. Many of these robots will be systematically connected, such that they can obtain updated information and learn from their own and others’ mistakes. The way we work, where we work, what we work on, and our relationships with our colleagues and employers are all in a state of change. The workplace of the future will not necessarily be a fixed geographical location, but may be geographically distributed and functionally divided. In his book, Jon-Arild Johannessen argues that a "perfect" social storm occurs when inequality grows at a catastrophic rate, unemployment increases, job security is threatened for a growing number and robotization takes over even the most underpaid jobs. Thus, the ingredients for a perfect social storm will be brought forward by cascades of innovations that will most likely lead to economic and social crises and he argues that it is reasonable to assume that it will only take a small spark for this social storm to develop into a social revolution.

This book looks at entrepreneurship and innovation as ways out of the economic crisis in Europe and other regions, and examines the main theoretical issues and practices related to this analysis. The volume addresses such questions as: From an institutional perspective, how do economic crisis conditions affect different types of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship? Is it useful for public policymakers and entrepreneurs to understand the basic characteristics of entrepreneurial activity, relations between the institutional environment and entrepreneurship and among entrepreneurship, innovation and social change? Featuring case studies from several industries and countries, and a variety of methodological, theoretical, and empirical approaches, the authors build a compelling narrative on the dynamics of entrepreneurship and innovation as drivers of economic growth and organizational renewal. They demonstrate that the strategic and operational relationships that entrepreneurship creates within and outside the enterprise are a fundamental route for leading and mobilizing economic and social resources that permit innovation at the organizational level and in relationships with suppliers, customers, and other stakeholders - in turn, enabling technological innovation, creating new revenue streams through new productive activities and new demand, and ultimately facilitating emergence from economic crisis. The authors consider social, gender, and generational aspects of entrepreneurship, as well as the institutional conditions necessary to promote entrepreneurial activity.

This book introduces embodied innovations into the circle of already recognised causes of economic crises. The author shows how issues of investment, accumulation and structural change associated with embodied innovations can be used to monitor potential crisis. The author argues that crises are predictable and manageable in depth.