An Inquiry Into The Theory And Application Of Product Innovation

Marxist economics provides not only the technology innovation theory but also an analytical paradigm of product innovation. In the "Das Kapitcal" and economics manuscripts from1861to1863, Marx studies the specific mechanism of the transformation of production mode caused by "machine-product-innovatio-n", analyzes how the existing capitalist division of labor system and the relative material foundation creates product innovation and analyzes product-innovations' influence to surplus value production and the capital accumulation. Keenly observes the90-years-history of the long-term fluctuation of the British cotton textile industry, Marx illustrates that the productivity development centered on the "product innovation" promotes the capitalism to a higher stage.The methodology of study on the product innovation in Marx economics theory lies in an important intermediary conception between in historical materialism and Marx's dialect. Marx's basic theory is the practical, materialistic and dialectical viewpoints. The practical viewpoint is to understand the reality from the aspects of the human activities and to perceive the relation of production and economical structures which cannot be conveyed by human's spirits. The materialistic viewpoint is not to explain the historical facts or social existence from the people's ideas or social consciousness but from social existence and social economics structure (relations of production). The dialectical viewpoint is to explicate the logical development of society from the social intrinsic motivation and to show the social internal connections and its self-movement process due to the inherent contradiction.Using Marx's methodology, we put forward the curtate of the conventional practice and the innovation practice. The conventional practice refers to the repeatedly activities according to the established patterns. The innovation practice means there appears new things that change the conventional patterns. The innovation practice is the motivity of social reformations. And the technological innovation and the system innovation lie on the practical innovation. As the material pattern of technological innovation, the product innovation is the achievement of the labors. According to the Marx's historical materialism, product innovation is one of the most important fields of the development of the productivity. Therefore, from the perspective of methodology, the introducing conception of practical innovation will concretize the practical, dialectical, and material worldview. And the introducing conception of product innovation will furthermore demonstrate the effects of practical innovation in historical development and will even make the worldview and methodology be an operational science.In the field of the political economy, the economy of the product innovation includes three aspects. First, in society, the deepening of labor division caused by the specialization and the expansion of division caused by product innovation are two important aspects of the spontaneous order expansion. The product innovation leads to the market internal expansion. It also is the important reason to raise labor productivity. The constructive model of this thesis analyzes the internal mechanism that product innovation will promote the expansion of labor division and improve labor productivity. The thesis also demonstrates the relationships among the product innovation, spontaneous order and economic equilibrium. We think the economical development is the result of three forces, the evolution of division of labor, the order of market expansion and economical balance, which the essence is the structure change of division system. Second, on the base of Ernest Mandel's principle of unsymmetrical long-term fluctuation, we consider the product innovation as the main force to promote average profit rate periodically. The capitalistic average profit rate appears the corrugated decline process due to anabatic profit rete caused by the product innovation, although Marx's decline principle of average profit rate needs a long-term effect. Through constructing the academic model to analyze the effects of profit rate' fluctuation on the speed of the social total capital's accumulation, this thesis demonstrates the following core vars, such as the product innovation, the profit rate, the speed of capital accumulation, employment and income distribution, etc. And the thesis proffers capitalistic degenerative principle according to the polarization and the repellent raise caused by the Marx's capital accumulation. Composed by the division of labor, the profit rate, the capital accumulation and the income distribution, the macroeconomics explains the macro-economical effects of the product innovation. Third, the thesis analyzes the crucial effects of product innovation to the institutional transform, which performs in the following three aspects:1.the changes of the ownership of the means of production;2. the changes of different social development periods in some ownership condition;3. the changes on labor process and organization forms. Those studies form the all-sidedly theoretical structure about internal system of economical development and connect the Marx economy with Alois Schumpeter economy.Above all, the thesis analyzes the process of industrial innovation in capitalist era from the demonstrative perspective. In this process, those nations in the forefront of the product innovation take the lead rising and become the super countries like the United Kingdom from1760to1830, the United States from1865to1945, Germany from1871to1913and from1946to1969, Japan from1955to1973, and so on. Contrasting effects of the product innovation on profit rate and capital accumulation, the thesis analyzes the effects so our marketable reformable innovation to the economy development and the exophytic economy's effects and problems to our economic development mode.