The Eighth International Joseph A. Schumpeter Society Conference - The Millennium Conference
Change, Development and Transformation: Transdisciplinary Perspectives on the Innovation Process

Manchester/UK 28^th June – 1^st July 2000

Conference Aims | Programme | Papers | Screensaver

Conference Aims:

The broad theme of this conference is the economicand social dynamics of enterprise and innovation. It addresses the question "How theEconomic World Changes in the Way It Does and Why?" The central issues will relate tohow modern capitalist economies change, develop and transform themselves in many differentways, although the conference will also be concerned with innovation processes indeveloping economies. The perspectives to be explored will be comparative, historical andtransdisciplinary, and will seek to cast light on processes of economic evolution at anumber of levels from individual firms through sectors, markets, regions and economies.

The Millennium provides a most suitable moment toconsider these important themes. For the conference is very firmly located in theSchumpeterian tradition in which an economic approach to enterprise and innovation dependsupon a wider awareness of the contributing roles of other disciplines. Almost a centuryhas passed since Schumpeter wrote his path-breaking Theory of Economic Development.In the intervening years the degree of specialisation in the social sciences has increasedmany fold, and new disciplines have emerged for the study of management and business. Atthe same time, the connecting links between these different disciplinary perspectives havegrown increasingly fewer. Certainly these trends do not facilitate the study of innovationnor do they help us provide wider conceptual understandings of an essential feature ofcapitalism; namely, its propensity to change, develop and transform itself from within.

The principal aim of this conference will be to drawupon the rich variety of treatments of enterprise and innovation from differentdisciplines and to seek to explore a greater number of connecting bridges between them. Inparticular, the conference programme will:

• Encourage contributions from scholars in a range of disciplines including economics, sociology, geography, economic and social history, history of science and technology, management and business studies, and others as appropriate.
• Encourage contributions which cover the Conference themes from the point of view of developing economies as well as advanced economies.
• Encourage contributions which cover the science technology and innovation policy aspects of the Conference themes.

The Conference will be organised into plenarysessions and parallel sessions. Among the themes for the plenary sessions will be thefollowing:

• The economic sociology of innovation processes
• Institutions and innovation processes, including intra and inter organisational learning
• Innovation processes and change in developing economies
• New quantitative approaches to the study of change, development and transformation
• The economic history of enterprise and innovation
• Economic geography of innovation processes
• Dynamics of evolutionary change among firms, industries and nations
• The management of innovation processes in evolving economies

In relation to these broad themes the conferencewill cover processes of economic change from many different perspectives, including thoseof economists, sociologists, historians, geographers and management scientists. Possiblethemes for individual papers would include:

• The market and non-market co-ordination of innovative activities
• Social constraints on change, development and transformation
• The economic and social aspects of economic decline
• Different methods for the analysis of competition dynamics
• The role of formal and informal institutions in promoting change, development and transformation
• The transmission mechanisms linking micro economic innovation to macro economic growth
• Non-technological innovation and innovation in non-manufacturing activities
• Processes for the accumulation of knowledge, individual and collaborative
• The comparative innovative performance of different economies, developed and developing
• Innovative performance of different forms of capitalism
• The particular problems of innovation and change in transition economies
• Social, political and economic foundations of enterprise
• Policy dilemmas in relation to change, development and transformation
• Markets, demand and innovation processes
• Measurement of innovation and its consequences
• Financial aspects of enterprise and innovation

This list is not exhaustive, rather it is designed to indicate the broad scope of the conference. 

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