Co-publishing and Innovation. Bioscience Defies a ‘One-Size-Fits-All’ Definition

To what extent is innovation comparable across industries? The Schumpeterian literature suggests it is — thus it can be radical, incremental or based on recombination in product, process or organization to name two sets of three of the generic types commonly analyzed in innovation studies conducted from a neo-Schumpeterian perspective. But, as Henderson et al.(1999) show, Schumpeterian thinking was driven by an engineering metaphor in which ‘gales of creative destruction’ removed swathes of industry, and certainly skills, as firms unable to compete with new technologies became bankrupt. This occurred classically in textiles with the handloom weavers and the onset of factory organization and power-loom technology, it happened when sailing ships gave way to steam, and it is happening today as biotechnology replaces synthetic, fine chemistry in pharmaceuticals. Or is it? That is the question that prompts this chapter.