The first thesis of ‘How Transformative Innovations Shaped the Rise of Nations’ is that economic growth, national dominance and global leadership are fueled primarily by embracing innovations, in particular transformative innovations.

A transformative innovation is one that changes the lives of people, reshapes the structure of society, disrupts the balance of power within and among nations, and creates enormous wealth for its sponsors. The adoption of a transformative innovation spawns numerous other related or consequent innovations. It provides a competitive advantage to a nation and may propel a small, backward region to world leadership in as short a time as a century. Further, the transformative innovation can sometimes itself promote the positive environment that leads to further innovations. Thus, embracing innovation can start a positive cycle of wealth creation, economic dominance and a positive environment for further innovation. This positive cycle continues as long as the environment that spawned the innovation remains supportive or until another transformative innovation arises elsewhere.

The second thesis of ‘How Transformative Innovations Shaped the Rise of Nations’ is that innovation is not adopted randomly across time and nations. Rather, it is sustained by an environment characterized by key institutional drivers within a country or region, three of the most important of which are openness to new ideas, technologies and people, especially immigrants; empowerment of individuals to innovate, start businesses, trade and keep rewards for these activities; and competition among nations, patrons, entrepreneurs or firms. Geography, resources, climate, religion and colonization probably played a role as well. However, past treatments of the rise of nations have overemphasized the role of these other factors; they have downplayed or ignored the role of innovations and the institutional drivers that led to their development and adoption.

Gerard J. Tellis is professor, Neely Chair of American Enterprise and director of the Center for Global Innovation at the Marshall School of Business, University of South California, USA. He is an expert in innovation, advertising, social media, new product growth and global market entry. Associate editor of the Journal of Marketing Research, Tellis is the author of 6 books and over 100 articles (http://www.gtellis.net) and has won more than 20,000 citations and 20 awards for his publications.

Stav Rosenzweig is assistant professor of marketing and business strategy at the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. An expert in innovation management and knowledge creation, Rosenzweig’s research focuses on the interrelations of innovation, knowledge and public policy in business strategy and consumer behavior.

List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; 1. Global Influence of Transformative Innovations; 2. Roman Concrete: Foundations of an Empire; 3. Swift Equine Warfare and the Rise of the Mongolian Empire; 4. How Gunpowder Shaped the Fortunes of Nations; 5. Golden Age of Chinese Water Navigation; 6. Venetian Shipbuilding: Mastering the Mediterranean; 7. Portuguese Caravel: Building an Oceanic Empire; 8. Fluyt and the Building of the Dutch Empire; 9. Patenting: Institutionalizing Innovation; 10. The Steam Engine and the Rise of the British Empire; 11. American Mass Production and the Rise of the USA; 12. Lessons; Notes; Index.