Economic hard times: Impact on innovation and innovation potential Introduction to the Special Section

摘要

Economic hard times can have impacts on all spheres of global and regional activity. During hard times, individuals, firms, economies and societies tend to search for a remedy through investment. One way to appreciate how crises affect societies is to understand that the recent crisis beginning in 2008 is not a genuinely new one, and to take into account recurring patterns such as the Kondratieff cycles. Against this backdrop, the special issue explores how economic stress affects the long-term innovative capacity of societies and industries. Some societies and industries will enjoy increased funding, while in other cases investment would be curtailed. Yet, increased or decreased investment may lead to counter-intuitive developments.