The Evolutionary Complexity of Endogenous Innovation

The Engines of the Creative Response

Cristiano Antonelli, Professor of Economics, Department of Economics and Statistics "Cognetti de Martiis", University of Torino and Fellow, Collegio Carlo Alberto, Italy

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. This book elaborates and applies the theoretical framework established in the author’s previous work Endogenous Innovation: The Economics of an Emergent System Property. This volume carefully explores the role of the reactivity of firms to out-of-equilibrium conditions. It also examines the quality of knowledge governance mechanisms in assessing the levels of externalities that define the likelihood of creative responses, as an alternative to adaptive responses.

‘The great challenge posed by capitalism is its creativity and, as everyone should recognize, this makes it an out-of-equilibrium system, the emergent properties of which depend on how it is ordered and instituted through regulated markets and the profit motive. This fine book explores and elaborates the interface between the ideas of Marshall and Schumpeter to cast new light on the ways in which wealth is created from knowledge and thus how capitalism is always changing from within.’
– J.S. Metcalfe, University of Manchester, UK