Knowing the Kondratieff cycle will help you assess your idea in relation to the big waves of the world economy. The Russian economist Nikolai Kondratiev observed change processes in the world economy that take place in long waves. In doing so, he put revolutionary basic innovations and drastic historical events such as wars into context.
At the beginning of each wave he describes there is an invention that changes production and also the whole society. Investments are then made in this technology for 40 to 60 years and there is an economic upswing until the production method reaches its limits, growth stops and another basic innovation marks the beginning of the next cycle.
1st Kondratieff: invention of the steam engine; innovations in the textile industry (Great Britain)
2nd Kondratieff: invention of the railroad; steel (Great Britain)
3rd Kondratieff: electrical engineering; chemistry (Germany/USA)
4th Kondratieff: automobile; petrochemistry (USA as world power; peak of industrial society)
5th Kondratieff: From industrial to information society (after oil crisis)
6th Kondratieff: health care market; biotechnology; psycho-social sector; environmental technology
Look at the cycles and the triggers of the respective upward and downward movements of the wave in the graph.
