Innovation and temporality: Between the logic of acceleration and the long time of exploration processes

This article examines the relationship between temporality and innovation by focusing on the limits of the continuous acceleration observed since the late 1980s. After identifying three research streams (speed of development of new products, the pace of Silicon Valley companies and highly uncertain projects), it questions their limits. In particular, it shows the tension between this logic of acceleration, and the associated short-termism, and the long time frame of the exploration process, based on the study of the invention of the transistor at Bell Labs in the late 1940s. Finally, in the last part, it opens the discussion on the challenges of managing temporality in the current context of climate change and the collapse of biodiversity. In particular, it shows the urgency of inventing innovation processes that integrate the very long term of the physico-chemical processes that govern the earth system.
JEL Code: O32