2005/26 | LEM Working Paper Series | |
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Technologies as Problem-solving Procedures and Technologies as Input-Output Relations: Some Perspectives on the Theory of Production |
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Giovanni Dosi, Marco Grazzi |
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Keywords | ||
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Theory of production, Organizational routines, Problem-solving knowledge, Production func-
tion, Micro-heterogeneity
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Abstract | ||
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In this work, inspired by Winter [2006], in fact of vintage 1968, we discuss the relation
between three different levels of analysis of technologies, namely as (i) bodies of problem-
solving knowledge, (ii) organizational procedures, and (iii) input-output relations. We
begin by arguing that the "primitive" levels of investigation, "where the action is", are
those which concern knowledge and organizational procedures, while in most respects
the I/O representation is just an ex post, derived, one. Next, we outline what we
consider to be important advances in the understanding of productive knowledge and
of the nature and behaviors of business organizations which to a good extent embody
such a knowledge. Finally, we explore some implications of such "procedural" view of
technologies in terms of input-output relations (of which standard production functions
are a particular instantiation). We do that with the help of some pieces of evidence,
drawing both upon incumbent literature and our own elaboration on micro longitudinal
data on the Italian industry.
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