Innovation

Name: Innovation
ISBN: 9787508662459

William J. BaumolCITIC Press2016

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Series: Comparative Translation Series
ISBN: 9787508662459

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Summary

This book is a representative work by the American economist William Baumol on the relationship between innovation and economic growth. Its original English title is The Free Market Innovation Machine: Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism. The Chinese translation, by Guo Meijun, Tang Yu, Peng Jing, and Li Qing, was published by CITIC Press in 2016 as part of the Comparative Translation Series. In Baumol's view, scholars have long been accustomed to treating price competition as the main driver of economic growth, but he argues that what truly sustains capitalism's rapid growth is a combination of three factors: systematic, routinized innovation within firms; intense competition among firms in the same industry over new products and processes; and cooperation among firms in creating and applying innovation. The free market, through arrangements such as patent systems and technology trading, turns innovation from an occasional inspiration into a mechanism that operates continuously, forming an ongoing innovation arms race that reduces the risks of technological renewal and accelerates technological diffusion. The book brings innovation into the mainstream framework of economic analysis, discussing the role of entrepreneurs in technological breakthroughs, the efficiency of technology diffusion, and the interaction between innovation and macroeconomic dynamics, showing how technological innovation evolved from the occasional breakthroughs of individual geniuses into an engine of long-term growth. The book runs to 294 pages and is suitable for systematic reading by those concerned with the economics of innovation, industrial policy, and corporate strategy.

Editor's review

为什么有的经济体能够持续高速增长，有的却长期停滞？鲍莫尔给出的答案不是资本、不是资源，而是“把创新变成常规业务”的制度能力。这个视角在今天尤其有价值：当创新被写进无数企业的年度计划时，真正稀缺的是让创新可重复、可扩散、可定价的机制。本书是“比较译丛”中的一种，作者是研究企业家精神与经济增长的权威学者，论述兼具理论框架与历史观察。译文由四位译者合作完成，术语较为规范。它不是一本“创新鸡汤”，也不提供立竿见影的工具模板，而是帮助读者建立对创新与增长关系的结构性理解。如果你读过熊彼特、诺斯或阿西莫格鲁，会把这本书看作同一思想谱系中的重要一环；如果你在企业里负责战略或研发，它能帮你跳出“多投研发费用”的直觉，去追问激励、竞争与协作如何共同塑造创新产出。

Who it's for

A good fit for

对创新经济学、经济增长理论感兴趣的高校师生
负责企业战略、研发管理与技术投资的从业者
关注产业政策与制度设计的公共政策研究者
希望从制度视角理解“增长奇迹”的非虚构读者

Not a good fit for

期待阅读具体创业案例与操作手册的读者
只想要轻松易读、篇幅短小的商业畅销书的读者

Reading tips

先读导论与结论，把握“创新机器”这一核心命题，再回头细读论证部分。
可配合熊彼特《经济发展理论》与阿西莫格鲁《国家为什么会失败》对照阅读，梳理思想脉络。
阅读时留意作者如何把专利、技术交易等制度安排纳入分析，尝试对照现实中你熟悉的行业。
若关注中国语境，可延伸阅读“比较译丛”中其他讨论制度与增长的著作。

About the publisher

CITIC Press China · Founded in 1988

Founded in 1988 and affiliated with China CITIC Group, CITIC Press focuses on business and economics, social sciences, literature and children's books, with common categories covering social sciences, finance, literature, Eastern philosophy and literary appreciation. Its library holds 91 titles, including Yuval Noah Harari's Sapiens trilogy, Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Wu Xiaobo's Thirty Years of Strife: Chinese Enterprises 1978–2008, Nelly Sachs's The Weight of Butterflies: Selected Poems of Nelly Sachs, as well as New Interpretations of the Analects and Chiang Hsun's lectures on Dream of the Red Chamber. Its authors and translators include Lin Junhong, Ba Shusong, Chen Li and Chang Fen-ling. Overall, the press introduces influential works in finance and social sciences while balancing classic translation and local appreciation in literature and Eastern philosophy, combining academic depth with accessible reading.

FAQ

这本书和理查德·福斯特的《创新：进攻者的优势》是同一本吗？

不是。福斯特那本聚焦企业技术S曲线与进攻者优势，属于企业管理类著作；本书作者是威廉·鲍莫尔，副标题为“经济增长的奇迹”，从经济学角度讨论自由市场如何把创新制度化，两者作者、内容与主题均不同。

这本书的英文原名叫什么？

英文原名为“The Free Market Innovation Machine: Analyzing the Growth Miracle of Capitalism”，直译大致是“自由市场的创新机器：解析资本主义的增长奇迹”。

需要经济学基础才能读懂吗？

书中涉及增长理论、企业家精神与产业组织等概念，具备基础经济学常识会更顺畅，但作者论述以文字分析为主，非专业读者耐心阅读也能把握主线。

它属于哪个丛书系列？

中译本收入中信出版社的“比较译丛”，该丛书以引进国外经济学与社会科学前沿著作为主，已出版数十种。

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About the author

William J. Baumol Author · American · 1922–2017

William J. Baumol (1922–2017) was an American economist and a former professor at Princeton University, widely known for formulating the theory of “Baumol's cost disease.” This theory explains how service industries continue to absorb labor despite lagging productivity growth, and it has had a significant impact on our understanding of structural change in modern economies. The library holds one work by him: Economics: Principles and Policy (11th Edition), a translated textbook in the finance and economics category. Systematic and rigorous, it is suitable for introductory economics courses and teaching reference. Because public information is limited, a fuller account of his life and academic career cannot be given here; nevertheless, the quality of this textbook shows that he was skilled at combining abstract economic principles with policy practice, writing clearly and arguing cogently, which is helpful for Chinese readers seeking to understand the basic framework of economics.