Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and the Economy in the US, China, and India

Chapter 2

History

Abstract

The reason history is an important factor in contributing to innovation is because the history of innovation in a country, both in the distant past and especially in the immediate past, or its recent “track record” sets societal or collective expectations in the psyche of a nation for innovations in the near future. Effectively, the expectation of innovation in the near future is an extrapolation of the history of innovation and hence is a factor contributing to innovation. In a sense, the “history of innovation” is the net effect of all other “hard factors,” factors that can perhaps be measured and quantified, and “soft factors” that have contributed to innovation in the past and the outcome of that is captured ...