What shapes the anatomy of inventors? A life-history analysis of Swedish patent inventors

Skytt-Larsen, Christine Benna

doi:10.1080/00167223.2016.1180998

Cited by 2 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Based on Skytt-Larsen's descriptive ideal types of inventors [5], this chapter presents the analysis of three inventor's life-histories. These are presented to explore how socio-cultural factors influence the innovative capacity of distinct inventor types.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Still, only few examples of solid research explore how specific socio-cultural factors influence individual actors' behaviour. Complementing Törnqvist's extensive work on the time-geography of Nobel laureates [12,14], Skytt-Larsen's exploration of the life-histories of Swedish patent takers [5] and the analysis of the impact of social and human capital resources on creative abilities [6], as well as Ejermo and Hansen's study of the influence of location history on individuals' future inventive capacities [15] are significant contributions to this understanding. Further, a limited number of laudable studies on the relation between institutional factors and the capacity of actors can be identified.…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studying the influence of the local environment on the propensity of actors becoming inventive Ejermo and Hansen argue that the institutional fabric of the early childhood and a high density of future inventors in the place of birth has a significant positive effect [15]. In addition, Skytt-Larsen alludes to the early childhood, especially the educational backgrounds or creative skills of parents and grandparents, the social relations in the actor's final education and the organizational structures in the workplaces as highly influential for the development of actors' innovative capacities [5]. In another work, Skytt-Larsen further reveals that the socio-economic position an actor is born into strongly influences the nature of his or her future creativity [6].…”

Section: Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Arguing for the importance of the educational setting for the development of social and human capitals, [5] no formal education except from elementary or high school. Bengt, a retired test engineer from southern Sweden is a great example of such an inventor.…”

Section: Empirical Analysis 41 Bengt: a Workhop Inventormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When exploring innovation, the human research management literature have primarily focused on the management of organizations or organizational culture [1][2][3]. Meanwhile, individuals' background and upbringing is a theoretical and empirical blind spot, even though other disciplines, such as sociology and psychology, have shown that family and upbringing are key indicators of human and social capital known to be influential for individuals' general capacities [4][5][6]. As Lin and Sanders writes "research on individual creativity and innovation has typically drawn on psychological theories to examine employee knowledge, skills and motivation as the antecedents of innovation (…) whereas research on organisational innovation comes from an intellectual capital or knowledge management perspective.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A large volume of literature within human resource management studies and related disciplines suggests that innovation and learning are key factors for economic growth in the knowledge economy. Yet, surprisingly little is known about the key actors in this process – the inventive actors – and the factors that influence their innovative capacities. Information about individual inventors is difficult to obtain and therefore previous research has refrained from performing systematic empirical studies on this topic. Existing studies are often based on quantitative analyses of patent data, and empirics often focus on specific industries or technologies. Such studies provide great knowledge of the importance of specific patent takers for innovation and the knowledge economy; however, patent data do not provide information on influential factors on the innovative capacity of inventors and therefore do not provide any explanation concerning what it is that creates successful inventors. In other words, what we have is knowledge of patent takers in specific industries or technologies, but we lack an understanding of the socio-cultural factors and environments that shape individuals’ innovative capacities. Analysing the life-histories of three inventors allocated into three distinct ideal types, this chapter aims at understanding the links between socio-cultural factors and innovation. Life-history research through in-depth interviews provides a rich quantity of narratives and recorded experiences serving as a springboard for more comprehensive understandings of the actors, networks and events that influence innovative capacities.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%