Technological change

This process of continuous improvement is often modeled as a curve depicting decreasing costs over time (for instance fuel cell which have become cheaper every year).

For example, proponents of the Induced Technological Change hypothesis state that policymakers can steer the direction of technological advances by influencing relative factor prices and this can be demonstrated in the way climate policies impact the use of fossil fuel energy, specifically how it becomes relatively more expensive.

In the case of a personal computer, it has made way beyond homes and into business settings, such as office workstations and server machines to host websites.

According to this model, technological change is seen as a social process involving producers and adopters and others (such as government) who are profoundly affected by cultural setting, political institutions, and marketing strategies.

In free market economies, the maximization of profits is a powerful driver of technological change.

Generally, only those technologies that promise to maximize profits for the owners of incoming producing capital are developed and reach the market.

Therefore, technological change is a social process strongly biased in favor of the financial interests of capital.

Awareness is more often obtained through the mass media, while uncertainty reduction that leads to acceptance mostly results from face-to-face communication.

Social norms, opinion leaders, change agents, government and the consequences of innovations are all involved.

Also involved are cultural setting, nature of political institutions, laws, policies and administrative structures.