ICC Advance Access originally published online on July 28, 2006
Industrial and Corporate Change 2006 15(5):785-810; doi:10.1093/icc/dtl017
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Incommensurate technological paradigms? Quarreling in the RFID industry
Correspondence: Naval Postgraduate School, 1 University Circle, Monterey, CA 93943, USA. Email: ndew{at}nps.edu.
Dosis work on technology paradigms and trajectories has emerged as an important idea in evolutionary approaches to the economics of innovation. This article explores these ideas using one particular case history. I examine how two technology paradigms clashed in the radio frequency identification (RFID) industry in the 20002002 period, a clash that manifested itself in a public quarrel that broke out between proponents of an incumbent paradigm and a challenger paradigm. These events present an excellent vantage point from which to observe a debate between two different technological perspectives within one industry to gain insights into the influence of technology paradigms.