Local Technology Adoption and Innovation: The Establishment of U.S. Airmail and the Organization of Aviation Innovation

This paper explores how technology adoption can shape local innovative activity in the context of the early 20th century rollout of airmail in the United States. Our theoretical framework highlights the mechanism of technological feedback and market incentives through which technology adoption induces local innovation, as well as the role of regional domain-specific capabilities in this process. Using our novel dataset of early 20th-century patents, we quantitatively examine these issues by measuring the effect of local airmail upon aviation innovation. Our results suggest that the establishment of an airmail route in a given county led to an increase in local aviation patenting by approximately 32%. Both individual and corporate inventors in treated counties had higher rates of aviation patenting in broad and diverse areas of aviation technology. We also find that the effect of airmail adoption was stronger in the treated counties with pre-existing local capabilities that specifically catered to, or could be readily applied to, the focal technological domain. This work contributes to the academic literature on antecedents and consequences of technology adoption and innovation. Our findings are also relevant for present-day managers and policymakers who are navigating the potential costs and benefits of new technology adoption.