Minority Migrations and the Diffusion of Technology

Bibliographic Data

ID10104271
AuthorsWarren C Scoville (University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author)
Year1951
Volume11
Issue4
Pages347-360
Publication date1951-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Journal of Economic History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-0507 • E-ISSN: 1471-6372
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022050700085090
OpenAlexW2075133521
LanguageEN
Citations received15

The process of technical change from the economist's viewpoint may be broken down into three phases: invention, innovation, and diffusion. Invention, or the increase in technological possibilities, is the discovery or perception of new configurations of technical processes or principles that alter the array of possible production functions. An innovation consists of using any given production function for the “first” time. Diffusion is basically imitative and involves the gradual replacement of old methods by the new. One example will suffice to illustrate these distinctions. The invention of the automatic bottle machine consisted of the conception, experimentation, and model-building activities of Michael J. Owens; the pioneering efforts of the entrepreneurs at Toledo, Ohio, to demonstrate that the new production function was both practical and economically feasible constituted the innovational phase; and the gradual replacement of hand-blown and semiautomatic machine methods by the new process in both American and foreign markets involved diffusion

Business · Diffusion · Diffusion process · Economics · Function (biology · Industrial engineering · Industrial organization · Innovation diffusion · Microeconomics · Neoclassical economics · Operations research · Phase (matter · Physics · Process (computing · Production (economics · Technological change · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Engineering · Marketing · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy

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