The Foundation of Complex Evolving Economies

How is economic theory, economic policy and strate­gic management to understand the fundamental pro­perties of parallel but intertwined processes of inn­ovation, competition and the dynamics of industries and economies at large? Such profound relationships have been at the heart of economic evolutionary ana­lysis for decades, but the urgency of providing theo­ries and models that are at the same time realistic, applicable, consistent and generalizable is becoming more accentuated as both centripetal and centrifugal forces are at work in the complex global economy.

In this symposium, Professor Giovanni Dosi will share and discuss his insights from more than 40 years of research of technological, institutional and organizational change. The main findings from this research program is summed up in his book The Foundation of Complex Evolving Systems that is being published in 2023 by Oxford University Press. The book, its insights and implications as well as potential controversies, are the centerpieces of this symposium. This manual seeks to offer an integrated analysis of the anatomy and physiology of the capitalist engine of genera­tion and exploitation of technological organizational and institu­tional innovations - from the drivers of knowledge accumulation, to the modes in which such knowledge is incorporated into business firms, all the way to the processes of innovation-driven “Schumpeterian competition” and macroeconomic growth. In that, it advances the interpretation of such patterns, in terms of economies seen as complex evolving systems.

Speaker biography

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Giovanni Dosi is professor of Economics at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa. He also serves as co-director of the ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ task force at the Initiative for Policy Dialogue at Columbia University. Additionally, Professor Dosi is a continental Europe editor of the journal Indu­strial and Corporate Change. He is included in the ISI Highly Cited Research list, denoting those who made fundamental contributions to the advancement of science and techno­logy, and is a corresponding member of the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, the first aca­demy of sciences in Italy. In 2016, he received the Wiley TIM Distinguished Scholar Award by the Technology and Innovation Manage­ment Division of the American Academy of Management and in 2022, he was awarded the Penrose Award by EURAM (European Academy of Management) for his research on evolutionary economics.

Giovanni Dosi’s research on the economics of technological and institutional change serves as a cornerstone in the current understanding of the organization of industries, industrial dynamics and organizational capabilities. A selection of his works has been published in two volumes: Innovation, Organization and Economic Dynamics. Selected Essays (2000), and Economic Organization, Industrial Dynamics and Development: Selected Essays (2012) both published by Edward Elgar.