Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET) was an experimental computer network developed by the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency, which included packet switching as a core component. Packet switching, before being adopted by the ARPANET project at the end of the 1960s, had been developed by two computer researchers working in two very different contexts: Paul Baran at the RAND Corporation in the United States and Donald W. Davies at the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. The different cultures that characterized these institutions, the first focused mainly on military defense, the latter oriented towards the economic exploitation of innovation, deeply influenced their technological output. The case focusses on the role played by institutions in innovation processes, especially on the positive and negative effects of military--and, more generally, publicly financed--research and development
