It is widely acknowledged that the co-evolution of demand characteristics and industry structure is a crucial activity affecting innovation and the growth of businesses, the transformation of industries, and influencing the dynamics of the overall economic system. Various streams of literature have addressed the issues of how and why co-evolution plays an important role in linking innovation and industrial dynamics. One strand focuses on how R&D activity and knowledge generate innovative opportunities. Other strands look at the role of economic incentives and focus on strategizing by firms as well as on the role played by changing users' tastes. Some stress the specificity of industries whereas others stress the idiosyncratic role of competences of specific firms and organizations. As a result, existing contributions achieve different conclusions about why demand, technology, and industry structure co-evolve. However, in many ways these different conclusions have not been linked. Nor they have been put in a framework concerning industry evolution. For example while many contributions have linked co-evolution to firms' innovative activity as well as technology (i.e. the product life cycle' approach for instance), there has been relatively few empirical evidence linking co-evolution to the long term dynamics of market structure (including entry and exit) or co-evolution to product innovation. Further theoretical as well as empirical evidence on the existence as well as on the nature of these linkages is needed.

This conference aims at analyzing the determinants of co-evolution of demand, technology, and industry structure by investigating the joint dynamics of users and consumers’ competences and behavior, product characteristics, and industry structure (including entry and exit).

Papers are sought on the following topics:

• Demand, technology, and the evolution of industries
• User-producers relationship, innovation, and industrial dynamics
• Demand and the emergence of new industries
• Entry, exit and the role of demand and users
• Firm competence, demand, and the evolution of corporations along the industry life-cycle
• Public policy, demand and industry evolution

Date and location:

The conference will be held at CESPRI – Università Bocconi in Milan, on Thursday and Friday, October 23-24, 2008.

Timetable:

• 1st Conference announcement: April 30, 2008
• Deadline for abstract submission: June 30, 2008
• Decision of paper acceptance: July 31, 2008
• Submission of full papers: September 30, 2008

Emails marked ‘DIME’ with a two-pages abstract & contact details should be sent in an attached file to Franco Malerba franco.malerba<at>unibocconi.it (replace <at> with @) AND to Roberto Fontana roberto.fontana<at>unibocconi.it (replace <at> with @).

You may also apply for funding to cover travel and accommodation expenses, which will be available to DIME members with accepted papers. Please specify that you are DIME member, as well as the budget.

Invited speakers:

• Ron Adner, INSEAD, France
• Tim Bresnahan, Stanford University, USA
• Giovanni Dosi, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy
• Alfonso Gambardella, Bocconi University, Italy
• Shane Greenstein, Northwestern University, USA
• Steve Klepper, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
• Pier Paolo Saviotti, GREDEGm France
• Manuel Trajtenberg, Tel Aviv University, Israel
• Gianmario Verona, Bocconi University, Italy
• Bart Verspagen, UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands
• Ulrich Witt, Max Planck Institute, Germany

Local conference organisers:

• Franco Malerba, CESPRI, Bocconi University, Italy
• Roberto Fontana, University of Pavia and CESPRI, Bocconi University, Italy