Agenda-diffusion and innovation

The neoclassical approach to innnovation is based on its economic advantages and thus in a strict sense seems to be applicable only to incremental innovations with a low degree of novelty. It is contended in this paper that so-called generic innovations, which are more important to the evolutionary process because of their high degree of novelty, always bring about uncertainty which will be compensated by social contacts, i.e. by communication. The author shows that a communication model based on very simple assumptions and implemented as a simulation model is able not only to sketch significant features of the diffusion process but also to give additional clues to the process modelled.