Entrepreneurs and technology diffusion How diffusion research can benefit from a greater understanding of entrepreneurship

Abstract This study builds on the work of Schumpeter and others who have recognised the role of entrepreneurs in the formation of entirely new industries around technological innovation. With this in mind, it critically reviews diffusion research, finding this work to be lacking in its treatment of entrepreneurship and its ability to integrate the wide range of factors that affect the diffusion process. In an effort to address these theoretical gaps, this study draws on management literature on the growth of the entrepreneurial firm, which puts entrepreneurs at the centre of analysis, and serves to integrate many of the traditional concerns of diffusion research. The authors hope that the proposed analytical framework will be applied to future case studies of technology diffusion in order that we might continue to better understand and explain the rate of technological advance in society.

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