Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • 2020
  • Article
  • Journal of Law & Innovation

Inconvenient Truths: Interpreting the Origins of the Internet

By: Shane Greenstein
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

A conventional economic narrative provides intellectual underpinnings for governments to subsidize research and development ("R&D") that coordinates risky research to benefit many in society. This essay compares this narrative with the origins and invention of the internet. Are the historical facts consistent with the conventional economic narrative? Does the conventional economic narrative offer a complete explanation for why government subsidized R&D related to the internet produced high economic value? The essay shows why that narrative is consistent with historical experience, and incomplete in crucial respects. To remedy incompleteness, an analyst needs to appreciate the role of lead-users and good governance of technology transfer. Accounting for such factors, the essay develops a number of implications for technology policy.

Keywords

Lead Users; Technology Transfer; Internet and the Web; History; Analysis; Research and Development; Governance; Information Technology; Policy

Citation

Greenstein, Shane. "Inconvenient Truths: Interpreting the Origins of the Internet." Journal of Law & Innovation 3 (2020): 36–68.

Supplemental Information

Rethinking Innovation Policy: The Role of the State
  • Read Now

About The Author

Shane M. Greenstein

Technology and Operations Management
→More Publications

More from the Author

    • February 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Intenseye: Powering Workplace Health and Safety with AI (B)

    By: Michael W. Toffel, Shane Greenstein and Sadika El Hariri
    • December 2024 (Revised January 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    A Guide to the Vocabulary, Evolution, and Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)

    By: Shane Greenstein, Nathaniel Lovin, Scott Wallsten, Kerry Herman and Susan Pinckney
    • November 2024 (Revised February 2025)
    • Faculty Research

    Hugging Face (A) and (B)

    By: Shane Greenstein, Nicole Zelazko and Kerry Herman
More from the Author
  • Intenseye: Powering Workplace Health and Safety with AI (B) By: Michael W. Toffel, Shane Greenstein and Sadika El Hariri
  • A Guide to the Vocabulary, Evolution, and Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) By: Shane Greenstein, Nathaniel Lovin, Scott Wallsten, Kerry Herman and Susan Pinckney
  • Hugging Face (A) and (B) By: Shane Greenstein, Nicole Zelazko and Kerry Herman
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.