The aim of this paper is to explain the why of a certain innovative activity instead of another as the result of the coevolution of markets and technology. The decade long demand pull vs. technology push debate turned out to be sterile (Freeman 1994): the coevolution of markets and technology really matters to explain the rate and direction of innovative activity. Although this view is now well received among scholars, there are no attempts to empirically apply this findings. Building on this evidence, we deal with two issues.

On the one hand, we discuss the meaning of coevolution and, based on previous literature, we suggest different proxies to empirically capture it. Secondly, we try to empirically measure their coevolution and they way the affect the probability an innovation takes place.