Factors affecting the power of technological paradigms

It is clear that the power of “technological paradigms” proposed by Dosi ( 1982 ) varies greatly across fields of practice, in the sense that in certain field's progress has been much more rapid than in others where comparable resources have been applied to the effort. This essay explores the factors behind these differences. It proposes that one important factor is the extent to which the technology in a field is controllable and replicable. Another factor is the strength of the supporting sciences. It is argued that these factors are strongly intertwined with the causal arrows going both ways. Copyright 2008 , Oxford University Press.