This book considers how the use of economic analysis can guide and inform the search for insight in the generation and adoption of new products.

Paul Stoneman is currently an Emeritus Professor at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, UK, where he was previously a Research Professor. He was formerly a Visiting Professor at Stanford University and a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He has acted as an advisor to governments and private sector companies on innovation, productivity, and performance. His research interests centre upon the economics of innovation and technical changes, with a special focus on diffusion.
Eleonora Bartoloni is a Senior Researcher at the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT). She is Adjunct Professor of Economics at the University of Parma, Department of Business and Economics. Her research interests are focused on innovation, firms growth and profitability.
Maurizio Luigi Baussola is Director of the Department of Economic and Social Sciences, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Piacenza, where he was previously Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business. He is Professor of Economic Policy and his research interests centre on the impact of technological and non technological innovation on firms performance, and on the determinants of labour market flows.

• 1: Introduction


• 2: Some initial definitions


• 3: Sources of new products


• 4: The extent of product innovation


• 5: The demand for a new product


• 6: Capacity creation, pricing, and the promotion of product innovations


• 7: The incentives to and constraints upon product innovation


• 8: Empirical evidence regarding the determination of the extent of product innovation


• 9: The diffusion of product innovations


• 10: Product innovation and firm performance


• 11: Product innovation and price measurement


• 12: Product innovation and welfare


• 13: Product innovation and the policy dimension