I am so glad that you mentioned Brian Arthur's The Nature of Technology (2009). I think that this is one of the most under-appreciated books on technological innovation. As far as I am concerned, it is by far the best book on the theory on technology.
Arthur heavily influenced me in writing my series of books.
You and your readers might be interested in seeing my video/podcast book review and my written book summary:
Lynne - insightful post! I find it surprising how similar threads of literature often miss each other. Brian Arthur's on technological innovation is amazing and I think fails to get the attention it deserves.
A couple related frameworks that I find very complementary to Arthur's:
Frank Geels: Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study
Anna Bergek et al.: Analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems
Have you considered (or conducted) similar analysis for more nascent technologies?
Regarding, "I find it surprising how similar threads of literature often miss each other."
I was also constantly surprised by this, but it is unfortunately the norm. So much academic research is stove-piped into narrow specialties that this happens all the time.
That is exactly why I think that it is so important to keep yourself informed on domains outside your specialty. It is quite likely that the problem in your field has already been solved by experts in another field, but no one realizes it.
Daniel Epstein goes into detail on this in his excellent book, "Range." Here is a summary from my online library of book summaries:
I am so glad that you mentioned Brian Arthur's The Nature of Technology (2009). I think that this is one of the most under-appreciated books on technological innovation. As far as I am concerned, it is by far the best book on the theory on technology.
Arthur heavily influenced me in writing my series of books.
You and your readers might be interested in seeing my video/podcast book review and my written book summary:
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/book-review-the-nature-of-technology-06a
https://frompovertytoprogress.substack.com/p/book-review-the-nature-of-technology
https://techratchet.com/2020/01/10/book-review-the-nature-of-technology-by-w-brian-arthur/
Lynne - insightful post! I find it surprising how similar threads of literature often miss each other. Brian Arthur's on technological innovation is amazing and I think fails to get the attention it deserves.
A couple related frameworks that I find very complementary to Arthur's:
Frank Geels: Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study
Anna Bergek et al.: Analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems
Have you considered (or conducted) similar analysis for more nascent technologies?
Regarding, "I find it surprising how similar threads of literature often miss each other."
I was also constantly surprised by this, but it is unfortunately the norm. So much academic research is stove-piped into narrow specialties that this happens all the time.
That is exactly why I think that it is so important to keep yourself informed on domains outside your specialty. It is quite likely that the problem in your field has already been solved by experts in another field, but no one realizes it.
Daniel Epstein goes into detail on this in his excellent book, "Range." Here is a summary from my online library of book summaries:
https://techratchet.com/2020/03/13/book-summary-range-why-generalist-triumph-in-a-specialized-world-by-daniel-epstein/