Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Rangnekar, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Related Collections
Right arrow O32 - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
Right arrow Q16 - R&D; Agricultural Technology; Agricultural Extension Services
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Industrial and Corporate Change, Volume 11, Number 5, pp. 1011-1029
© 2002 Oxford University Press

R&D appropriability and planned obsolescence: empirical evidence from wheat breeding in the UK (1960–1995)

Dwijen Rangnekar

Correspondence: Dwijen Rangnekar, School of Public Policy, University College London, 29/30 Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9QU, UK. Email: d.rangnekar{at}ucl.ac.uk.

Abstract

Plant breeders face a unique appropriation problem—plants are reproducible, genetic information is heritable and seeds can be multiplied. The paper uses varietal age as a proxy for durability to examine planned obsolescence strategies in UK wheat breeding. Market-weighted age fell from 13 years (1960s) to 5.5 years (1990s). This fall is on account of increased varietal proliferation and breeding strategies that focus on incremental productivity improvements (i.e. increased efficiency) and narrow and limited disease resistance (i.e. reduced durability).


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.