ABSTRACT
Among the simple models and easy solutions that have fallen to the findings of recent research is the linear model of technological change familiar to all who study technology. The linear model is a stereotypical deterministic model that simply represents the sequence from basic and applied research to product and process development to marketing of a commercial product. What it lacks most, in comparison to contemporary knowledge, is any notion of a network. As this chapter will show, network thinking opens up a wide variety of sources of ideas, which ultimately permit people and organizations – notably, but not only, firms – to better understand and (to some extent) to control their environment. Examples are drawn primarily from Japan, but these are illustrative rather than exclusive. Network models have become central to research on regional growth, and they have become central to understanding institutions and national systems of innovation.
