1 Technological Regimes : Theory and Evidence

This paper deals with the diversity of patterns of innovation across industrial sectors and the definition of technological regimes. Technological regimes are important because they identify common properties of innovative processes in distinct sets of production activities. Such properties contribute to interpreting asymmetries in the dynamics of industrial competition. This paper revises the prevailing definition of technological regimes and provides a systematic summary of the evidence by developing a new typology of regimes. The analysis suggests that the concept of technological entry barriers might be a more useful concept than that of appropriability. The distinction between technologies and products is also revealed important to assess features of regimes that are independent on the characteristics of particular technologies, such as the complexity of knowledge bases and the diversity of search trajectories. Last, the importance of inter-firm diversity in innovative environments is revised; in areas of high technological opportunities, technological regimes impose stronger imperative on the rates and directions of firms’ search. Support from the Dynacom project TSER European Union is gratefully acknowledged.