Home » Business » Prof. Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi Releases His Latest Book – “Innovation & Imitation For Nations: The Technological Gap Shock and Nations’ Urge to Imitate and Copycat”

This book introduces a summary of experiences for innovative nations through history. Imitation, copycatting, and knocking-off are the code that nations use as a response to the shock of the “technological gap” before embarking on innovation. 

Miami, Florida, April 3, 2023, A scholar, inventor, and internationally known expert in the exploration of industrial development and international cooperation, Prof. Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi has released his latest book – Innovation & Imitation For Nations: The Technological Gap Shock and Nations’ Urge to Imitate and Copycat.

The book provides a journey for readers through thousands of years extending from the innovation of silk and porcelain in China and paper and kohl in Pharaonic Egypt to the modern innovations in Europe and USA.

Prof. Al-Shamsi’s book introduces a summary of experiences for innovative nations through history. Imitation, copycatting, and knocking-off are the code that nations use as a response to the shock of the “technological gap” before embarking on innovation.

Barbra Bamberger Scott, a reviewer from Feathered Quill, indicated that “Al-Shamsi points out that both innovator and copier benefit in the process of imitation, providing examples such as Emperor Justinian I and his silk imitation mission.

A recent review by Aimee Jodoin, of Foreword Reviews, provides an excellent description of this well-acclaimed book. “Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi’s illuminating history text Innovation & Imitation for Nations suggests that Western technological development often followed in the footsteps of the East.

Split into four parts, this book discusses a variety of technological advances that shaped world economies. Throughout, it places its examples into the proper historical, legal, and social context. It makes a point to list shortcuts taken along the way, from the use of patents allowing the replication of products to the blatant theft of ideas from poorer nations.

It shows how commodities including Chinese porcelain and silk and Phoenician textile dyes were co-opted by more powerful countries, skewing the truth of who was responsible for the initial innovations—and doing so with wide and lasting implications.

Taking early care to define its terminology, the book imparts a solid understanding of its economic framework. Once this groundwork is laid, it moves through distinct eras in human history and world geography to showcase how Western infrastructures proved conducive to economic growth through imitation, even as Eastern innovators’ economies plateaued. Such arguments are built and strengthened through a bevy of examples that show imitators profiting off of those from poorer nations.

The book’s socioeconomic and historical details, including those of under lauded inventors and ancient empires, are exacting and accessible, resulting in an absorbing history whose lessons are appealing. Its examples pique interest, as with its story of the development of paper and the printing press, which begins with an account of ancient Egyptian papyrus, and then covers the evolution of this important invention in concise, illuminating terms. Via such enjoyable narrations of innovations, the book makes a convincing case that European nations took repeated advantage of earlier advancements. 

Innovation & Imitation for Nations is an enlightening technological history book that reveals how Western nations extorted their strong socioeconomic positions in order to steal and adapt inventions from the East.”

About The Author:

Prof. Al-Shamsi worked in the academia for almost 20 years. He earned his Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo in Canada at age of 29. He has published several peer-reviewed articles in high impact journals and co-invented multiple advanced technologies in the fields of nano technologies, combat desertification, climate change, green solutions, and environmental remediation.

He received extensive executive educations in a number of prestigious management schools including Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge.

Prof. Al-Shamsi held several national and international positions in research and innovation systems. He held the position of full Professor in King Abdulaziz City for Science & Technology (KACST).

For complete information, visit: https://www.innovation-books.com/

Media Contact:

Prof. Mohammed Ahmad S. Al-Shamsi
Attn: Media Relations
Miami, FL
info@prdistributionco.com