Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Dedication
- 1 Theory of the entrepreneurial firm
- 2 Who are the entrepreneurs? (or, don't confuse brains with a bull market)
- 3 Competition – the leapfrogging game
- 4 Advertising, memory, and custom
- 5 Inventions and innovations in business and science
- 6 Origins of state-owned enterprises
- 7 Restoring the wealth of nations
- Appendixes
- Notes
- References
- Name index
- Subject index
5 - Inventions and innovations in business and science
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 June 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Dedication
- 1 Theory of the entrepreneurial firm
- 2 Who are the entrepreneurs? (or, don't confuse brains with a bull market)
- 3 Competition – the leapfrogging game
- 4 Advertising, memory, and custom
- 5 Inventions and innovations in business and science
- 6 Origins of state-owned enterprises
- 7 Restoring the wealth of nations
- Appendixes
- Notes
- References
- Name index
- Subject index
Summary
Submit to pressure from peers and you move down to their level.
Speak up for your own beliefs and you invite them up to your level.
If you move with the crowd, you'll get no further than the crowd.
When 40 million people believe in a dumb idea, it's still a dumb idea …
So if you believe in something that's good, honest and bright, stand up for it.
May be your peers will get smart and drift your way.
Advertising by United Technologies, Inc., The Wall Street JournalThe view presented here, as well as in Brenner (1983, 1985), examines the conditions under which people bet on new ideas (in any domain) and the likelihood of others to adopt or reject them. The questions raised are simple: Since betting on new ideas represents, by definition, abandoning customary behavior, what induces some people to act in this way, and what determines the rest of the society's reaction toward them?
As shown in the previous chapters, the pressure of competition and the threat of rivals induce some people to abandon their customary ways of thinking and inspire inventions and innovations. However, it would be misleading to jump to the conclusion that only competition (as defined in Chapter 3) and no other incentives can make the sparks fly. There are numerous other forms of threat that can shock people out of their customary behavior and provide incentives for an innovative one.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- RivalryIn Business, Science, among Nations, pp. 97 - 123Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1987