Trajectory – Innovation Trajectories and Dynamic Capabilities
Résumé
The trajectory is studied in the context of the evolution of the company. A reflection follows, both on the role of dynamic capabilities and knowledge capital in the formation of trajectories and on the consequences of their collective formation. Empirical work on technological paradigms and trajectories has focused on macro-/meso-scales, such as the study of technological revolutions and technoeconomic paradigms by C. Perez, and meso-/micro-scales, that is, on sectoral dynamics as well as on the trajectories followed by firms in several sectors. The production and constant enrichment of “knowledge capital” by the firm illustrates these dynamic capabilities, capable of producing new organizational routines, drawing technological trajectories within existing paradigms and eventually provoking the emergence of new paradigms and trajectories. The study of how knowledge capital is built up shows that it is not only the result of internal investments by companies, but also increasingly of multiple cooperations with different types of organizations.