Many modern studies of cultural innovation and demographic change rest on the proposition that social learning is a key process in the spread of novel variants. We agree with this proposition, but we also suggest that the selectivity of social learning, with respect to a skill or knowledge, has largely been overlooked in considering how the tempo of cultural evolution depends on population size...

In spite of the recent acknowledgements of “open source development” type of user-led innovation, our understanding is still limited as to its applicability and benefit. Particularly, from the viewpoint of firms making consumer goods, it remains unclear whether they can take advantage of peer-to-peer interaction and collaboration among consumers in the Internet era. Through an analysis of the v...

This is a theoretical paper about artifacts that have been designed to enable processes of collaborative knowledge creation and innovation. We refer to these artifacts as Enabling Spaces, and they comprise architectural, technological (ICT), social, cognitive, organizational, cultural, as well as emotional dimensions. The paper claims that innovation is a highly challenging social and epistemol...

This paper explores the role that societal culture may play in terms of acting as an inhibitor or enabler when creating conditions conducive to innovative enterprise. To further understanding of this concept, the paper’s authors explore different cultural influences and traditions of the country of Germany and the Canadian province of Ontario against the backdrop of the introduction of a govern...

Public sector healthcare services are both large users and innovators of health technologies. In the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) initiatives have been developed to manage the process of technological innovation more effectively. This has two main aims, to maximize potential commercial returns from innovations developed within the NHS; and to improve levels of patient care through appropr...

Despite the significance and impact of corporate culture upon organisational performance, rigorous ethnographic techniques are relatively absent in the management literature. This won’t do – culture is too important to be left undefined and unrefined, and analysts need a deeper awareness of the anthropological and sociological frameworks that can clarify cultural analysis. There are many cultur...