Biotechnology & Telecommunications Innovation

This special issue of Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice addresses 'Conditions for Innovation in Biotechnology and Telecommunication'. Each article addresses one or both of these emerging technologies as well as aspects of innovation processes, and each thereby contributes to the growing literature on technologies. The editors have worked extensively on modern biotechnology and telecommunication, and therefore have broader ambitions beyond the selection of individual papers to be published. Taken as a whole, this special issue aims to contribute towards specifying the similarities and differences during innovation processes in emerging technologies. This issue is the result of a longer debate about how and why modern biotechnology, ICT, and telecommunication develop and impact on society. One reason for putting together a special issue is that we are convinced that comparing and contrasting conditions for innovation is a crucial issue for researchers, government policy-makers, firm managers and others associated with emerging technologies. To what extent can general principles be identified for this type of innovation process? To what extent can general principles be identified for innovations as drivers of a particular type of economic dynamics? To what extent can each emerging technology be understood as a unique historical case? Deciding about the range of possible policy interventions requires a re-assessment of the extent to which emerging technologies are influenced by general principles, as opposed to the vagrancies of historical circumstances. Our ambition with devoting a special issue to modern biotechnology and telecommunication is to encourage others - and ourselves - to move beyond the details of innovation in specific technologies to strive for more systematic and comprehensive comparisons. The conclusion by Bohlin and McKelvey considers the implications for policy-makers and managers as well as future research areas. Some of the lessons from the papers are found to challenge 'accepted truths', giving rise to a number of questions to explore further in future research. The articles strive to shed light on these issues, and pave the way for further research, by presenting empirical evidence and new perspectives on innovation from two emerging technologies - or two dynamic industries. Our ambition here is to fuel debates through some current findings, but also encourage others to assess a number of problem areas associated with the larger question of theoretical abstraction versus historical specificities. Certain aspects of innovation may be difficult to deconstruct - especially in areas where technological change is rapid - but this does not mean that these structures and conditions that do affect innovation and growth should be ignored. Indeed, the existence of complex and difficult issues suggests the need for systematic analysis as well as suggestions for intervention by public and private actors.