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Matthew R. Keller

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Assistant Professor of Sociology, Southern Methodist University

P.O. Box 750192
Dallas, Texas 75275
(214) 768-3583

Expertise & Civic Involvements

Keller’s research concerns technological innovation and the government’s role in the U.S. innovation economy. Recent works and a co-edited volume, “State of Innovation,” document the key role of government in fostering the development of innovative technologies in a vast array of industries. Current projects focus on the role of innovation policies in the alternative energy sector.

SSN Briefs

Key Publications

  • State of Innovation: The U.S. Government’s Role in Technology Development (with Fred Block) (Paradigm, 2011).
    Provides the most comprehensive description and analysis to date of the U.S. government’s role in supporting the innovation economy over the last four decades.
  • "The CIA’s Pioneering Role in Public Venture Capital Initiatives" in State of Innovation: the U.S. Government’s Role in Technology Development, edited by Fred Block and Matthew R. Keller (Paradigm, 2011), 109-132.
    Describes the political factors that gave rise to broad experimentation with public venture capital agencies, and documents the diffusion of public venture capital initiatives within the federal government that followed from a bold experiment undertaken by the CIA.
  • "Where Do Innovations Come From? Transformations in the U.S. Economy, 1970-2006" (with Fred Block). Socio-Economic Review 7, no. 3 (2009): 459-483.
    Analyzes a unique data set of award-winning technologies reveals critical changes in the organization of the U.S. innovation economy, including the increasingly central role of the U.S. government in supporting innovative technologies.
  • "Building on Success: Reforming the U.S. Innovation System," (with Fred Block), Project: www.greattransformations.org, January, 2009.
    The report was released at a December 1, 2008 policy event and conference in Washington D.C. Co-sponsored by the Economic Policy Institute, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the Breakthrough Institute, and the University of California, Davis, the conference brought together panels of experts to address how to strengthen the U.S. innovation system, the 'green challenge' - investing in innovation for energy independence and stability, and how to overcome obstacles to improving the innovation system in the United States.
  • "Where Do Innovations Come From? Transformations in the U.S. National Innovation System 1970-2006," (with Fred Block), Report issued by The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Washington DC, July, 2009.
    Today, approximately two-thirds of the award-winning U.S. innovations involve some kind of inter-organizational collaboration -- a situation that reflects the more collaborative nature of the innovation process and the greater role in private sector innovation by government agencies, federal laboratories, and research universities.

Talks and Briefings

  • "Comparing Innovation Policies: Strengths and Weaknesses," U.S. government-sponsored workshop, Creating an Innovative Economy, organized by Boeing, Inc., for the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China, Arlington, VA, September 14, 2011.
    Discussed strengths and weaknesses of different innovation policy regimes, as well as the U.S. government's role in the innovation economy.
  • "Panel Session on The Role of the Public Sector in Innovation," (with J. Erik Garr, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Kate Gordon, Center for American Progress), Conference on Jobs, Inequality, and the Public Sector: Improving the Economic Competitiveness and Innovative Capacity of the U.S., Washington DC, October 11, 2011.
    Communications Workers of America co-sponsored this conference with Georgetown University's Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor and the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
  • "Keynote Address: Where Do Innovations Come From?," (with Fred Block), "Partnering to Advance Innovation," Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Beyond Phase II Annual Conference and Exhibition, hosted by the U.S. Department of Defense, Palm Desert, CA, September, 2008,