I think it's a hard question because a lot of different things happened in different regions - you can't just point to things that happened in Europe and say "This is why!"

As an example, China had imperial examination[1] for government jobs since 607 - a system not seen in the West until modern times. Ancient Rome built concrete buildings that their descendants couldn't replicate for centuries, yet they failed to start Industrial Revolution.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_examination