Entry and competitive dynamics in the mobile telecommunications market

We propose an extension of the Gans-Stern [Gans, J.S., Stern, S., 2003. The product market and the market for “ideas”: commercialization strategies for technology entrepreneurs. Research Policy 32 (2), 333-350] framework that includes entry by existing firms. An incumbent firm possessing complementary assets and strong appropriability is in a formidable position [Teece, D.J., 1986. Profiting from technological innovation: implications for integration, collaboration, licensing, and public policy. Research Policy 15 (6), 285-305]. However, a de alio entrant can leverage complementary assets to enter along a new technological trajectory, and then develop appropriability. We illustrate how several mobile telecommunications firms (Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung) pursued this strategy to catch up with the market leader (Motorola). We also identify several shortcomings in Motorola's approach: it was too inward-looking in developing technologies, but ironically not inward-looking enough in exploiting its most valuable patents.     

Reflections on “Profiting from Innovation”

How innovators capture value from innovation is an enduring question. Two decades ago an effort was made in “Profiting from Innovation” to unlock this conundrum. This paper reflects on the framework offered, identifies and reviews the analytical foundations of the theory, and recognizes subsequent contributions and advancements. Linkages are also made to the strategic management literature on “resources” and “dynamic capabilities”. Elements of a Schumpeterian theory of the firm are outlined, along with a framework to assist management in designing technology commercialization strategies.     

Not all scientists pay to be scientists: PhDs’ preferences for publishing in industrial employment

It is often assumed that academically trained scientists have a strong taste for science and are willing to “pay” for the ability to openly disclose their research results. However, little is known regarding how scientists considering jobs in industrial R&D make trade-offs between positions that allow publishing on the one hand and positions that do not allow publishing but offer higher pay on the other. Using data on over 1900 science and engineering PhD candidates about to enter the job market, we find that while some are unwilling to give up publishing at virtually any price, over one third of those most likely to seek positions in industrial research are willing to forego publishing for free. We develop a simple model of the “price” scientists assign to publishing in firms and explore potential sources of heterogeneity empirically. We find that the price of publishing increases with individuals’ preferences for various benefits from publishing such as peer recognition and contributing to society, but it decreases with their preference for money. Scientists who believe themselves to be of high ability and who train at top tier institutions have a higher price of publishing. Yet, they are more expensive to hire (not less) even if publishing is allowed. We discuss implications for research on the economics of science and on compensating differentials, for managers seeking to attract and retain academically trained personnel, and for firms considering their participation in open science.     

R&D cooperation and failures in innovation projects: Empirical evidence from French CIS data

The second French Community Innovation Survey (CIS) indicates that 14% of R&D collaborating firms had to abandon or delay their innovation projects due to difficulties in their partnerships, an outcome which we term “cooperation failures”. Controlling for sample selection on the cooperation decision, our estimates show that firms collaborating with competitors and public research organizations (PROs), especially when they are foreign, are more likely to delay or stop an innovation project because of difficulties encountered in their R&D partnerships. More surprisingly, firms collaborating with their suppliers also face a higher risk of “cooperation failures”. At least for PROs, firms can reduce the risk of “cooperation failures” through previous experiences in partnerships. Larger firms and group subsidiaries are less likely to face “cooperation failures”, and so do firms in industries with a strong appropriability regime.     

Under the radar: Industry entry by user entrepreneurs

We inductively develop a model of the commercialization process for new products or services user entrepreneurs undertake when entering an industry while drawing on proprietary technology developed in another industry. Extending the growing field of user entrepreneurship, we identify a two-phase approach to industry entry by user entrepreneurs who start “under the radar” of incumbent firms, gain experience, attract a first potential customer base, and then, in a second phase, engage in commercialization. During this process, a community of fellow users is of major importance for the entrepreneur, serving as a knowledge pool for skills development and experimentation with different commercialization paths. We study a nascent group of firms founded by users of video games who became entrepreneurs on entering the animation industry by producing Machinima, a new film genre characterized by shooting film in video games. We explain how user entrepreneurs gain access to complementary assets (video games) for their new use (shooting film), how they deal with intellectual property issues when using other firms’ assets, and how user entrepreneurs combine domain knowledge about film production with their experience in video games and the art of Machinima. Our propositions hold implications for management and policy.     

市场导向组织变革的动力机制研究

论文首先基于跨案例研究,从组织变革的理论视角,提出了市场导向组织变革动力的概念框架,然后使用问卷调查对概念框架进行验证,并比较了具体变革动力的作用强度。研究发现:制度环境压力构成的情境动力(包括战略联盟、体系认证、标杆管理、管理咨询和竞争压力)一方面驱动企业家认知和行为层面的触发动力(包括领导者示范作用和危机变革意识),另一方面促动内部支持系统构成的使能动力(包括部门间联系、正式化、基于市场的薪酬、基于市场的培训、以及信息技术使用),进而推动了市场导向的组织变革过程。本文是首个综合使用多案例分析和问卷调查对中国企业市场导向执行问题进行的学术研究,丰富了市场导向、组织变革、制度基础观、领导理论等方面的文献,对企业提升市场导向水平具有切实的指导意义。     

Profiting from technological innovation by others: The effect of competitor patenting on firm value

In 1986, Teece proposed a seminal framework for analyzing why innovators may fail to benefit from their innovations. He argued, in part, that firms with the requisite complementary assets can often expropriate an innovator's returns especially when appropriability regimes are weak. In this paper, we explore the implications of this framework from the perspective of an incumbent firm—more precisely, of investors in that firm—facing innovation by established corporate rivals and by inventors from outside its industry. We demonstrate that the financial-market value of publicly traded firms depends on patented innovation by competitors (both established rivals and industry outsiders). Our empirical study generates three main results. First, the financial-market value of an incumbent is negatively associated with “important” patenting by outside inventors. Second, in industries characterized by weak appropriability regimes or by a strong reliance on complementary assets, this relationship is reversed: important patenting by outsiders is positively associated with the incumbent's financial-market value. Third, the effect of outsiders’ patented innovation on the focal incumbent is qualitatively different than that of established rivals’ patented innovation on the incumbent. These results are consistent with implications of Teece [Teece, D., 1986. Profiting from Innovation, Research Policy] and with recently developed models that formalize elements of his framework. More generally, these results support theories about both the market-stealing and spillover effects of innovation.     

“Pyramiding: Efficient search for rare subjects”

The need to economically identify rare subjects within large, poorly mapped search spaces is a frequently encountered problem for social scientists and managers. It is notoriously difficult, for example, to identify “the best new CEO for our company,” or the “best three lead users to participate in our product development project.” Mass screening of entire populations or samples becomes steadily more expensive as the number of acceptable solutions within the search space becomes rarer.The search strategy of “pyramiding” is a potential solution to this problem under many conditions. Pyramiding is a search process based upon the idea that people with a strong interest in a topic or field tend to know people more expert than themselves. In this paper we report upon four experiments empirically exploring the efficiency of pyramiding searches relative to mass screening. We find that pyramiding on average identified the most expert individual in a group on a specific topic with only 28.4% of the group interviewed - a great efficiency gain relative to mass screening. Further, pyramiding identified one of the top 3 experts in a population after interviewing only 15.9% of the group on average. We discuss conditions under which the pyramiding search method is likely to be efficient relative to screening.     

Big TAM in Oman: Exploring the promise of on-line banking,its adoption by customers and the challenges of banking in Oman

Information and communication technology (ICT) developments and trends in recent years have had great impact on the banking sector worldwide. In many developed and developing countries, the use of disruptive innovation technologies has accelerated change in the way banking business is conducted, consumers being swept along with such change. However, in many countries, such as Oman, there are deep routed cultural and religious factors that cause consumers to question the acceptance of such changes. Through the use of a theoretical framework built on technology acceptance frameworks and models, and empirical evidence from key market segments of the Omani banking market, the research explores the factors that influence Omani consumer acceptance of on-line banking. The findings are significant in that trust, usability and perceived quality are deemed key drivers. This is probably not unexpected, however, what is interesting is that the market profile is skewed to middle aged users, with social standing and “herd” mentality does not affect the adoption of the technology. This, combined with the emerging mobile savvy younger generation poses an interesting challenge for the future of the banking sector in Oman and implies a need for the sector to rethink the strategic use of, and approach to, implementation of on-line banking in a way that is complementary to the cultural and ethological dimension of the market. In effect, the banking sector will need to manage the covert tension between technology driving “fast time”, and the Omani culture, religion and tradition demanding face to face “slow time”.     

制造企业服务创新战略与竞争优势获取:机制与权变情境

服务创新已经成为制造企业获取竞争优势的一种有效战略,但现有文献对动态竞争环境下制造企业服务创新战略对竞争优势的影响机理还缺乏深入探讨。鉴于此,本文基于动态能力理论视角,选取247家中国制造企业为样本,对动态环境下制造企业渐进式和突破式服务创新战略对竞争优势的影响关系进行实证研究。研究结果表明:两类服务创新战略对竞争优势的市场绩效和财务绩效这两个维度均具有直接正向影响;市场动态性越高,相比突破式服务创新战略而言,制造企业渐进式服务创新战略更有助于竞争优势(企业相对市场绩效和财务绩效)提升。竞争强度越大,相比渐进式服务创新战略而言,制造企业突破式服务创新战略越有助于竞争优势(企业相对市场绩效和财务绩效)提升。本研究结论对于现存文献有着重要的理论贡献,对于动态环境中的中国制造企业服务化有着直接和引申的管理启示。     

Political aspects of innovation

“Political aspects” that enhance, but also undermine, the positive transformational power of public innovation policies are examined. As such, this paper follows Micha? Kalecki in his 1943 paper that identifies the “political aspects” which enhance and undermine the positive transformational power of Keynesian full employment policies. Similarly, this paper provides a policy framework that identifies what government and business support as innovation policies. The role of innovation stems from Schumpeter's long-run perspective, but incorporates the more dynamic cyclical short-term and trend perspectives of Kalecki. This paper critiques the strategy of public innovation policy in general and derives policy implications.     

How much should society fuel the greed of innovators?: On the relations between appropriability, opportunities and rates of innovation

The paper attempts a critical assessment of both the theory and the empirical evidence on the role of appropriability and in particular of Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) as incentives for technological innovation. We start with a critical discussion of the standard justification of the attribution of IPR in terms of “market failures” in knowledge generation. Such an approach, we argue, misses important features of technological knowledge and also neglects the importance of non-market institutions in the innovation process. Next, we examine the recent changes in the IPR regimes and their influence upon both rates of patenting and underlying rates of innovation. The evidence broadly suggests that, first, IPRs are not the most important device apt to “profit from innovation”; and second, they have at best no impact, or possibly even a negative impact on the underlying rates of innovation. Rather, we argue, technology- and industry-specific patterns of innovation are primarily driven by the opportunities associated with each technological paradigm. Conversely, firm-specific abilities to seize them and “profit from innovation” depend partly on adequacy of the strategic combinations identified by the taxonomy of [Teece, D., 1986. Profiting from technological innovation: implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy. Research Policy 15, 285-305.] and partly on idiosyncratic capabilities embodied in the various firms.     

Knowledge diffusion, market segmentation and technological catch-up: The case of the telecommunication industry in China

This paper examines the growth of technological capability in the telecommunication industry in China. We apply a modified version of Lee and Lim's [Lee, K., Lim, C., 2001. The technological regimes, catch-up and leapfrogging: findings from the Korean industries. Research Policy, vol. 30.] model of technological learning and catching-up. Using the three cases of the Shanghai Bell, the CIT-led R&D consortium, and indigenous companies such as Huawei, we analyze how the catching-up in the telecommunication industry occurred. We find that the important factors in the catch-up are the strategy of “trading market for technology,” the knowledge diffusion from Shanghai Bell both to the R&D consortium and to Huawei, and industrial promotion by the government. As a condition for successful catch-up, the paper points out that the technological regime of the telephone switches is featured by a more predictable technological trajectory and a lower cumulativeness. These conditions and strategies helped the Chinese firms to achieve a stage-skipping catch-up, namely, by skipping the stage of analogue electronic switches to jump to digital electronic switches.     

企业规模、市场竞争与研发补贴的实施绩效

研发补贴可以撬动更多私人创新,也可能直接替代和减少企业私人研发,这就产生了政策风险。减少这种政策风险成为发挥研发补贴实施效果的关键。本文提出一个协调一致的理论框架,分析与企业自身特征（规模）相关的政策风险,以及与外部市场竞争相关的政策风险是如何影响研发补贴政策实施绩效的。在此基础上,本文以沪深A股上市公司2008-2012年的数据作为样本,验证企业规模、市场竞争以及两者的各种组合对中国研发补贴政策绩效的调节作用,以识别各种政策风险在哪些条件下会得到缓解。结果发现：在市场竞争程度较小的行业中,不应资助规模过大的企业;在市场竞争程度较强的产业中,应避免资助规模过小的企业。本文可以为合理制定研发补贴政策提供参考建议。     

加价能力、行业结构与企业研发投资——市场势力与技术创新关系的再检验

市场势力是影响企业技术创新的重要因素,来自不同国家样本的实证检验得到了丰富而多样的经验证据,但学者们普遍忽视了一个重要问题,即市场势力在企业和行业层面具有的不同内涵,以及二者对企业技术创新行为的差异性影响。本文创新性地从微观和中观两个层面,将市场势力分为个体企业拥有的加价能力和表征市场竞争情况的行业结构,从理论上阐述了加价能力与行业结构影响企业研发投资的机制,进而构建双层线性模型处理行业和企业的双层结构数据,以中国制造业二位码行业和微观企业数据为样本进行了实证检验,结果表明：勒纳指数对企业研发投资的影响显著为负,说明加价能力越强创新投入反而越低,并不存在预期的熊彼特效应;对于有研发企业而言,行业结构通过勒纳指数发挥间接作用,市场集中度的降低有利于削弱勒纳指数对企业研发投资的抑制作用,产生逃离竞争效应,而此种效应在大中型企业中更为突出,对于行业中的小型企业而言,市场竞争并不能起到激励研发投资的效果。     

新能源汽车产业政府补助与市场融资的创新激励效应

本文选取2015-2018年新能源汽车产业110家上市公司面板数据,探索政府补助与市场融资及其协同配合对企业研发创新影响的差异性。结果显示,新能源汽车产业政府补助对企业研发创新具有显著激励效应,市场融资并未显著促进企业研发创新,政府补助与市场融资协同配合能有效促进新能源汽车产业研发创新。通过进一步研究发现,处于不同新能源汽车产业链阶段的企业,政府补助对中上游企业研发创新的激励效应更大,而市场融资对下游企业研发创新的激励效应更大,政府补助与市场融资协同配合对中上游企业研发创新的激励效应更大。同时,相对于国有企业,新能源汽车产业政府补助与市场融资及其两者协同配合对非国有企业研发创新的激励效应更大。本文在一定程度上丰富了创新激励与政府干预理论,并为政府扶持新能源汽车产业精准设计创新政策提供理论指导。     

Understanding the timing of ‘fast-second’ entry and the relevance of capabilities in invention vs. commercialization

This paper analyzes the way a firm can control its entry timing after missing the opportunity to pioneer an emerging market. The findings, based on a panel of 224 potential entrants, reveal that alignment with invention and commercialization capabilities of early entrants has positive effects on the timing of ‘fast-second’ entry. When comparing invention and commercialization capabilities, the latter dominate. In addition, subsequent alignment as the market develops, as opposed to initial alignment at the beginning of market emergence, is associated with the reconfiguration of capabilities and is the more important determinant of entry timing.     

Highly innovative small firms in the markets for technology

Long-lived small firms with a substantial, public record of innovative success are the focus of this paper. We label such firms “serial innovators” and argue that they are often specialist suppliers in markets for technology. To survive as specialist suppliers, firms must produce technology that is broadly tradable. Using Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella's markets-for-technology framework, we hypothesize that such technology has certain characteristics. It is: high quality, general purpose, broadly based, quite basic, and concentrated in newer generations of technology. We find that serial innovators, survivors among the specialist technology suppliers, have mastered innovating in technology with these characteristics. This helps explain why these firms have become serious players in these markets—at least for a few years until a new generation of technology emerges.     

技术-市场双元性组合对破坏性创新的影响——以科技型小微企业为研究对象

为厘清技术推动力和市场拉动力对于科技型小微企业破坏性创新的影响机理,本研究基于技术和市场领域中探索与利用的组合分别探讨了单一探索、单一利用、技术双元、市场双元、技术开发和市场开发六种可能的双元性组合策略对科技型小微企业低端破坏性创新和新市场破坏性创新的影响。通过对佛山地区364家科技型小微企业的调查研究,实证分析结果显示基于“技术利用×市场利用”组合的单一利用策略和基于“技术探索×市场利用”组合的技术开发策略对科技型小微企业的低端破坏性创新具有显著的正向影响;而基于“技术利用×市场探索”组合的市场开发策略和基于“技术探索×市场探索”组合的单一探索策略对于科技型小微企业的新市场破坏性创新具有显著的正向影响。