2002 Volume 21.22 Pages 144-151
The purpose of this article is to consider the theory of consumer society mainly constructed by Baudrillard in the view of innovation studies begun by Schumpeter. Though Marx thought capitalism could never survive because of oversupply and class struggle, capitalism in advanced countries in fact has been going on since the end of the World War II. Baudrillardian semiotic social theories have tried to account for how and why it has. But their explanations made a mistake in the light of innovation. According to them it is because consumer goods as signs differentiate in the semiotic sense that capitalism in advanced countries has survived. But it is necessary not to differentiate goods but to innovate effectively processes of production and distribution in order that capitalism can go on.
