Origins and Pathways of Innovation in the Third Industrial Revolution: Sweden, 1950-2013

This study examines the factors that have shaped the long-term evolution of the ICT industry in Sweden, 1950-2013. Exploiting a new historical micro-database on actual innovation output, the driving forces and technological interdependencies in the third industrial revolution are chronicled. The results of this study support some stylized facts about innovational interdependencies in general-purpose technologies: a closely knitted set of industries have provided positive and negative driving forces for the development of ICT innovations. The historical evolution of the GPT surrounding microelectronics can in this perspective be described as a sequence of development blocks.