Literature suggests that in battles between competing designs, ultimately one design will emerge as the dominant one to the detriment of the others. Various factors and forces have been identified to explain this phenomenon. Yet, sometimes no dominant design emerges at all and multiple competing designs coexist in the market together. The Flash Memory Card Industry provides an example of this. In this study we use this example as a case for investigating the circumstances under which an industry will have a tendency toward multiple “dominant” designs. The case shows that a combination of factors may result in multiple designs and we argue that such a combination of factors will increasingly also apply in other cases.
A large part of the literature from industrial organisation and management expects that, compared with unrelated M&As, related M&As show superior economic performance because of synergetic effects that follow from economies of scale and scope. The current contribution takes the debate on the effect of different M&As somewhat further by studying the effect of M&As on the technological performance of companies. In this study the technological performance of M&As is related to a high-tech sector, i.e. the computer industry. The main result of this research is that the so called strategic and organisational fit between companies involved in M&As seem to play an important role in improving the technological performance of companies.
The research agendas of psychologists and economists now have several overlaps, with behavioural economics providing theoretical and experimental study of the relationship between behaviour and choice, and hedonic psychology discussing appropriate measures of outcomes of choice in terms of overall utility or life satisfaction. Here we model the relationship between values (understood as principles guiding behaviour), choices and their final outcomes in terms of life satisfaction, and use data from the BHPS to assess whether our ideas on what is important in life (individual values) are broadly connected to what we experience as important in our lives (life satisfaction).
The stabilisation of innovative technology depends on reconciling technological requirements and user behaviour. This can be achieved by adjusting the technology to the users, by configuring the user, or by a combination thereof. This paper evaluates different strategies in a case of service innovation: the substitution of conductors with self-service machines in the Amsterdam tramways around 1970 and the various forms of fare-dodging that came along. To counteract fare-dodging, the transport company unsuccessfully relied on a strategy to configure users. Alternative strategies, notably configuring users through technological adjustment, are suggested to increase the chance of stabilisation. These observations and suggestions are related to the actual characteristics of services: given that transport services are immediately and collectively used, their misuse, if not corrected by fellow passengers, soon tends to threaten the aspect of stability. Emphasising service characteristics thus contributes to a better understanding of strategies to reconcile services and users.
The process of innovation follows non-linear patterns across the domains of
science, technology, and the economy. Novel bibliometric mapping techniques can
be used to investigate and represent distinctive, but complementary
perspectives on the innovation process (e.g., "demand" and "supply") as well as
the interactions among these perspectives. The perspectives can be represented
as "continents" of data related to varying extents over time. For example, the
different branches of Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in the Medline database
provide sources of such perspectives (e.g., "Diseases" versus "Drugs and
Chemicals"). The multiple-perspective approach enables us to reconstruct facets
of the dynamics of innovation, in terms of selection mechanisms shaping
localizable trajectories and/or resulting in more globalized regimes. By
expanding the data with patents and scholarly publications, we demonstrate the
use of this multi-perspective approach in the case of RNA Interference (RNAi).
The possibility to develop an "Innovation Opportunities Explorer" is specified.
Reports of the current success and future potential of nanotechnological innovation in the field of medicine are frequently illustrated with images depicting speculative and futuristic visions. Based on a case study of visionary images of nanorobots and mini-submarines in the human body in popular science magazines, the business press and daily and weekly newspapers, this paper demonstrates that, despite their weak reference to current developments in nanomedicine, these images serve as a means of communication for the ‘exchange’ of expectations between the discourses of science, economy and the mass media.Through a systems-theoretical and discourse-analytical examination of the dynamics of discourse-networks surrounding these images, the investigation focuses on a certain mediality of futuristic visual images which has been rather neglected in recent Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Technology Assessment. The ‘communicative spaces’ suggested by visionary images enable productions of meaning for the current potential of nanotechnological innovations in and between various discourses. The dynamics of expectations within the communication processes can be reconstructed according to the variations of discourse-specific (i.e. scientific) evaluations of the depicted visions, which in turn can be described as the recursive processing of other (i.e. economic and mass medial) evaluations.
Pecuniary externalities are crucial in shaping the distinctive competences and the economic success of innovative firms. The analysis of conditions for localized appropriation associated to the intensive use of idiosyncratic factors by means of the introduction of biased technological change provides a new understanding about knowledge appropriability and stresses the key role of external factors in the exploitation of technological knowledge.
We perform a comparative case analysis of four working Living Labs to identify their common functions. Theoretically, we ground
our analysis in terms of how they function, their processes of exploration and exploitation, where they work in the innovation
strata, how new socially negotiated meanings are negotiated and diffused. Our research highlights four novel insights: first,
Living Labs function at the low and mid level innovation strata; second, Living Labs are technologically agnostic; third,
Living Labs use context based experience to surface new, socially constructed meanings for products and services; and finally,
Living Labs are equally focused on exploration and exploitation.
Is biotechnology a revolutionary technology that will dramatically transform present technological systems, industries and society or will the entrance of biotechnology into industry rather take the shape of incremental innovations without any deeper impact on dominating technological paradigms? The vast science and technology research in this area has focused on pharmaceuticals and neglected the potential role for large scale biomass handling activities like the forest industry in general and pulp and paper industry in particular. In addition the industry itself has not focused its R&D activities towards utilization of biotechnology on inputs, processes or products. This is a study on the technological system for pulp and paper facing the challenge of a radical shift of technology. The confrontation between the genuinely science based biotechnology and its community on the one hand, and the pulp and paper community (highly scientific within the framework of a low-technology industry) on the other, is analyzed as are the industrial and economic potentials and limitations of biotechnology in this area.
Although biotech start-ups fail or succeed based on their research few attempts have been made to examine if and how they strategize in this core of their activity. Popular views on Dedicated Biotech Firms (DBFs) see the inherent uncertainty of research as defying notions of strategizing, directing instead the attention to the quality of their science, or the roles of boards, management, and collaborative networks etc. Using a unique comprehensive dataset on Danish and Swedish biotech start-ups in drug discovery this paper analyzes their research strategies. Adopting a Simonean point of departure we develop a contingency view on complex problem solving which structures the argument into three steps: 1) Characterising the problem architectures addressed by different types of DBFs; 2) Testing and confirming that DBFs form requisite research strategies, by which we refer to problem solving approaches developed as congruent responses to problem architectures; 3) Testing and confirming that financial valuation of firms is driven by achievements conforming to requisite research strategies. These strategies, in turn, require careful combination of multiple dimensions of research. Findings demonstrate that Shonhoovens classical argument that “strategy matters” is valid not only for the larger high-tech firms covered by her study, but also for small research-based start-ups operating at the very well springs of knowledge where science directly interacts with technologies. Even though a lot more research is needed along these lines, these findings offer new implications for the understanding, management, and financing of these firms.
Scientometric data is used to investigate empirically the emergence of search
regimes in Biotechnology, Genomics, and Nanotechnology. Complex regimes can
emerge when three independent sources of variance interact. In our model,
researchers can be considered as the nodes that carry the science system.
Research is geographically situated with site-specific skills, tacit knowledge
and infrastructures. Second, the emergent science level refers to the formal
communication of codified knowledge published in journals. Third, the
socio-economic dynamics indicate the ways in which knowledge production relates
to society. Although Biotechnology, Genomics, and Nanotechnology can all be
characterised by rapid growth and divergent dynamics, the regimes differ in
terms of self-organization among these three sources of variance. The scope of
opportunities for researchers to contribute within the constraints of the
existing body of knowledge are different in each field. Furthermore, the
relevance of the context of application contributes to the knowledge dynamics
to various degrees.
This study describes a process in which a firm relies on an external consumer community for innovation. While it has been recognized that users may sometimes innovate, little is known about what commercial firms can do to motivate and capture such innovations and their related benefits. We contribute to the strategy literature by suggesting that learning and innovation efforts from which a firm may benefit need not necessarily be located within the organization, but may well reside in the consumer environment. We also contribute to the existing theory on “user-driven innovation” by showing what firms purposively can do to generate consumer innovation efforts. An explorative case study shows that consumer innovation can be structured, motivated, and partly organized by a commercial firm that lays out the infrastructure for interactive learning by consumers in a public online domain.
Recent research identify the type of partner as a critical factor determining the effect of R&D collaboration on innovation. Most firms tend to utilize various types of R&D collaboration partners simultaneously, and partnerships between different types of partners show different properties. Thus, the effect of R&D collaboration may vary depending on partner types. This study considers four partner types: competitors, customers, suppliers, and universities. It empirically examines the effect of R&D collaboration with each type of partner on product innovation,employing the Korea Innovation Survey data. Results show that R&D collaborations with customers and universities have a positive effect on product innovation, whereas R&D collaborations with suppliers and competitors have an inverted-U shape relationship with product innovation.
This paper examines some of the experiences in information and knowledge sharing involving MERCOSUR firms. It finds that while technological collaborations by MERCOSUR firms are relatively few, located in low-tech sectors and taking place in an environment of little innovation they are motivated by the need to 'fuse' own knowledge with that of partner or to improve available information. Modes of governance vary accordingly, with equity or contractual forms being used for new developments and informal agreements for improvements. Governments and business associations can be important facilitators of technological collaborations. The analysis of technological collaborations suggested that the better prepared a corporation entered an agreement the more successful it was likely to be. It also pointed out that were interactions were intense, well intended and transparent; included personnel exchanges; were properly assessed; and, involved receptive participants, learning progressed smoothly and partners were satisfied. Benefits of the collaborations included new patentable and non patentable products and new factories as well as building trust between partners. Premature termination of some collaborations was the result of financial limitations unrelated to the success of the collaboration.
In this paper the focus is on identifying the technological linkages between the Finnish nanotechnology community and the large established companies. These linkages represent potential diffusion paths for nanotechnology. The technological linkages are first observed at a broader level in comparison with the technological strengths of the Finnish industries, and then in more detail at the level of companies. In addition, the absorptive capacity of the established companies is discussed to illustrate their ability to take advantage of external sources of knowledge. The descriptive analysis shows that the R&D activities of the Finnish nano-community are connected to the technological specialisation of Finnish industry in broader sense and that there are potential technological linkages to various industrial sectors, both in 'low-tech' and 'high-tech' areas. Further, the larger established companies with potential connections to nanotechnology are characterised by a higher level of absorptive capacity.
There is increasing emphasis being put on the need to be 'internationally competitive'. This imperative is being driven, it is argued, by the globalization of economic and corporate life. This 'globalization' is the subject of a burgeoning academic literature. To achieve and maintain the necessary competitive edge requires companies to be innovative, technologically dynamic, and organizationally efficient - in a dynamic, not just static sense. There is a literature on systems of innovation analyzing such requirements, how they have been met in practice in different contexts up until now, and what the implications are for policy. However, these two literatures - on systems of innovation and globalization - have developed quite independently. The purpose of the current paper is to discuss the implications of each for the other. Far from transcending national systems of innovation, current globalization processes are shown to have a symbiotic relation to such systems.
In this paper we assess how important “industry” is to innovation. Our empirical estimates suggest that “industry factors” matter little to how firms’ search for new innovations. These results offer empirical support to recent evolutionary theory where firms have heterogeneous capabilities and pursue different approaches to innovation. Structural variables at the industry level do however have a substantial influence on the firm level propensity to innovate. This result supports “sectoral innovation system” approaches where firms are “constrained” by technological regimes underlying industry evolution. Hence, the driving forces behind technological evolution are found at both the firm and industry level.
Many car manufacturers recognize fuel cell vehicles as future substitutes for conventional cars with internal combustion engines. According to press releases and brochures, different strategic approaches of the automobile companies to fuel cell technology can be identified. These strategies match to a high degree the market entry strategies known from strategic marketing literature. A system dynamics model that reflects the beginning innovation process and the strategic approaches of a pioneer (first to market), an early follower (early to market) and a late follower (late to market) has been built. It examines the future prospects of the car manufacturers' strategies in three different scenarios, which illuminate possible future developments of external influences like politics or fuel infrastructure.
We briefly review the rationale behind technological alliances and provide a snapshot of their role in global competition, especially insofar as it is based around intellectual capital. They nicely illustrate the increased importance of horizontal agreements and thus establish the relevance of the topic. We move on to discuss the organisation of industries in a dynamic context and draw out consequences for competition policy. We conclude with an outlook on the underlying tensions between technology alliances, competition policy, and industrial policy.
The issue explored is whether incentive regulation in the telecommunications industry in the United States has resulted in an increase in productive efficiency. After providing an overview of the nature of incentive regulation, the methodology for measuring the effects of incentive regulation on productive efficiency is reviewed. This methodology is data envelopment analysis (DEA) and allows for the measurement of both technical efficiency and allocative efficiency of individual local exchange carriers. The results of empirically implementing the DEA approach indicate that in the aggregate there is little change in technical efficiency. In fact, average technical efficiency in 1989 was the same as in 1998. Next, while outputs continued to grow at about their historical rate across LECs, the sizeable increase in the two types of capital increased inputs well above their historical average rates for some LECs leading to short-run allocative inefficiency. On average, however, allocative efficiency shows no identifiable trend between 1988 and 1998. Finally, in the aggregate, total economic efficiency, what incentive regulation in the telecommunications industry in the United States was designed to promote, does not have a demonstrable trend between 1988 and 1998.
This paper serves as a stimulus to investigators to examine the role organizational politics plays in decisions leading to the abandonment of information systems (IS) projects. While prior research has identified the development of IS projects as a highly political process, where stakeholders may be more concerned about furthering their self-interests than about contributing to the overall success of the project, there has been little research on identifying the political factors contributing to IS project abandonment. Our case demonstrates six types of political action that took place that caused an electronic commerce (e-commerce) project to be abandoned. Finally, when analyzing mistakes and their principal causes, there is one important lesson that we should learn. That is, all organizations make mistakes and there is the potential for learning from project abandonment experiences.
Standards-setting activities were traditionally characterized by either pure competition or cooperation activities. Recent studies, however, have proposed that a shift in standards-setting activities is taking place in which a hybrid mode is observed, and that digital convergence is one driving force behind this shift. Little is known about the nature of this hybrid mode and the empirical evidence that has supported such propositions is still weak. To address this gap, this paper develops a framework in which five attributes are examined to determine the level of cooperative and competitive standards-setting activities, during the development and the sponsoring stages, in the Wireless Information Devices Operating System (WID-OS) battle. The empirical evidence drawn from this standardization battle suggests that digital convergence drives firms to pursue cooperative and competitive standards-setting activities throughout the battle. We conclude by exploring future research and practical implications.
Innovation policy is increasingly concerned with mobilising a broad range of resources to support the development of firm-level technological capability. It is aimed at dealing with 'market failure', which arises when firms are confronted with technological challenges in which they lack the necessary experience or resources. Both internal agency and independent evaluation of such innovation policies are routinely undertaken but most are conducted during the lifetime of the programmes or soon after they have ended. There are few examples of such evaluations being able to take a long-term perspective. This paper explores the impacts of a UK government technology programme on the process and product application of microelectronic technologies (MAP) that ran between 1978 and 1986. Via interviews with a sample of firms who participated in scheme, the research explored their subsequent use of microelectronics, government support schemes and expert consultants. The study argues for more regular long-term reviews of technology promoting schemes as an aid to learning and capability enhancement in policy-making.
