Abstract.
Accounts of economic change recognize that markets create selective pressures for the adaptation of technologies in the direction of customer needs and production efficiencies. However, non-adaptational bases for technological change are rarely highlighted, despite their pervasiveness in the history of technical and economic change. In this paper the concept of exaptation -a feature co-opted for its present role from some other origin - is proposed as a characteristic element of technological change, and an important mechanism by which new markets for products and services are created by entrepreneurs. Exaptation is a missing but central concept linking the evolution of technology with the entrepreneurial creation of new markets and the concept of Knightian uncertainty.
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JEL Classification:
O3, M13, D8, D52
Correspondence to: Nicholas Dew
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Batten Institute of the Darden School of Business Administration, University of Virginia, for carrying out this research. We also wish to thank Rama Velamuri and an anonymous referee for their comments, which significantly improved this paper. All remaining faults are the sole responsibility of the authors.
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Dew, N., Sarasvathy, S.D. & Venkataraman, S. The economic implications of exaptation. J. Evol. Econ. 14, 69–84 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-003-0180-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00191-003-0180-x