The Changing Interrelationship Between Scientific Knowledge and Economic Power

Bibliographic Data

ID10284271
AuthorsYoungsoo Bae (0000-0002-6262-114X, Seoul National University, corresponding author)
Year2025
Publication date2025-02-19
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueMinerva (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0026-4695 • E-ISSN: 1573-1871
PublisherSpringer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1007/s11024-025-09574-2
OpenAlexW4407683758
LanguageEN
References cited33

Economists and historians have been disputing the Schumpeterian view of independent inventors, observing a number of them succeed in retaining control over their own start-up and leading its growth into a mature company. The unconventional evolution is usually attributed to the changing balance of power in the equity market, where investors have been funding huge sums of money over the last few decades. This essay considers the patent system in addition to the equity market and studies institutional developments during the last five decades or so, which have affected the inventor-investor relationship. Concentrating on leading information technology companies, it also examines management practices, such as stock option plans, and probes the way inventors have made use of the financial resources provided by investors in developing innovative knowledge into marketable goods: With support from investors, inventors have often taken command in infusing scientific knowledge with economic power and thus consolidated enormous influence over employees, customers, and society in general. The essay explains that inventors, taking advantage of the patent system in addition to the changing balance of power in the equity market, have shaped a new balance of power and brought forth a strange compound that might be called intellective power

Economic growth · Economics · Environmental economics · Higher education · Political science · Power (physics · Entrepreneurship Studies and Influences · Innovation Policy and RD · Private Equity and Venture Capital

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