Abstract:
Technological innovations have become one of the key determinants of
the success of knowledge economy. So far, technological development in knowledge
economies has been mainly measured based on organizational and explicit objective
outcome of knowledge creation capacity of a nation or a region. In the Western
knowledge economies, role of the independent inventors has been ignored,
discouraged, and organizational innovations have been recognized as driving force
in new knowledge creation. However, the continuous involvement of independent
inventors in technological inventions in unfavorable conditions is a phenomenon that
cannot be explained by existing objective measures. Recently, subjective well-being
has emerged as a key aspect of human capital that positively influences the
developing nations. However, there were hardly any published studies that examined
the possible relationship between subjective well-being and the success of inventors
in the developing countries. This paper presents the first look at this relationship
among the independent inventors in Sri Lanka: a lower middle-income country in
South Asia. The study found that independent inventors in Sri Lanka are not
objectively successful, but they are subjectively successful. They feel happy about
what they have achieved as inventors, satisfy with what they are planning to do and supposing to achieve in the future. Independent inventors’ subjective success
depends on their satisfying assessment of existing objective outcomes, optimism on
what they are going do, and what they are hoping to gain in the future. Findings
suggest that subjective success or well-being of independent inventors might lead
them to be continuously engaged in inventive activities under the unfavorable
environments for independent inventing.