This is the first comprehensive work on the sociology of innovation. It's an original contribution that shows the importance of social relations in the process of invention and innovation. Ramella provides an extremely useful tool for students and scholars from other disciplines that are interested in the sociological view of innovation.
-Professor Carlo Trigilia, University of Florence, Italy
Francesco Ramella's book is an important and original contribution which helps to clarify how innovation emerges, pointing to its social and territorial embeddedness.
-Professor Arnaldo Bagnasco, University of Turin, Italy
Sociology of Economic Innovation by Francesco Ramella offers a timely and innovative account of how economic innovation takes place. It shows what sociological analysis at its best can do when applied to understanding economic phenomena, while at the same time relying on an impressive amount of work from other disciplines. The analysis of the actors of innovation, of their relations and of the contexts in which they operate is supported by robust theoretical and conceptual frameworks and represents a very important contribution to our understanding of this key phenomenon. Ramella's book lucidly and insightfully fills in a longstanding gap in our knowledge of economic innovation and promises to change our thinking about it, thus renewing the best tradition of the Italian school of economic sociology. It will be of great interest to social scientists as well as to students and policy-makers.
-Professor Marino Regini, University of Milan, Italy
Francesco Ramella's Sociology of Economic Innovation is set to become a classic text. He navigates with ease among national political economy, evolutionary economics, economic geography, sociology of science and technology, and of course economic sociology, to discuss with stunning clarity different conceptualizations of research about economic innovation. No miracle receipt here, but the systematic analysis of networks, systemic interactions, learning processes, scales, sectors, firms and territories, to understand the dynamics of capitalist innovation. From the Triple Helix to creative accumulation (Schumpeter Mark II), from the Danish innovation system to start-ups in Silicon Valley, this book shows the varieties of combinations supporting innovation.
-Professor Patrick Le Gales, Centre d'etudes europeennes de Sciences Po, France
