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on Technology and Industrial Dynamics |
| By: | Kawakami, Momoko |
| Abstract: | This paper explores the process of creation of the netbook market by Taiwanese firms as an example of a disruptive innovation by latecomer firms. As an analytical framework, I employ the global value chain perspective to capture the dynamics of vertical inter-firm relationships that drive some firms in the chain to change the status quo of the industry. I then divide the process of the emergence of the netbook market into three consecutive stages, i.e. (1) the launch of the first-generation netbook by a Taiwanese firm named ASUSTeK, (2) the response of the two powerful platform leaders of the industry, Intel and Microsoft Intel, to ASUSTeK’s innovation, and (3) the market entry by another powerful Taiwanese firm, Acer, and explain how Taiwanese firms broke the Intel-centric market and tapped into the market-creating innovation opportunities that had been suppressed by the two powerful platform leaders. I also show that the creation of the netbook industry was an evolutionary process in which a series of responses by different industry players led to changes in the status quo of the industry. |
| Keywords: | Taiwan, Information services industry, Computer, Industrial technology, Marketing, Market share, Industrial management, Disruptive innovation, Latecomer firms, Global value chains, The PC industry |
| JEL: | L63 O51 O53 |
| Date: | 2012–02 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:jet:dpaper:dpaper325&r=tid |
| By: | Giorgio Matteucci (Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "Antonio Ruberti" Sapienza, Universita' di Roma); Pierfrancesco Reverberi (Dipartimento di Informatica e Sistemistica "Antonio Ruberti" Sapienza, Universita' di Roma) |
| Abstract: | It is widely argued that international arbitrage, or parallel trade (PT), trades off static against dynamic efficiency so that, compared with a national exhaustion regime of intellectual property rights, worldwide consumer surplus rises at the expense of R&D investment. We show that this common wisdom is rather the exception than the rule. Indeed, quality investment often rises under international exhaustion, since it strengthens vertical differentiation between the original product and parallel imports. In this case, there is no trade-off at all, so that encouraging PT improves welfare, or the reverse trade-off occurs where investment increases and consumer surplus declines, while PT has ambiguous welfare effects. We find that, when allowed to use dual pricing, the R&D firm artificially restores national exhaustion. We also find that the expected trade-off never occurs under non-linear pricing and when the foreign country is regulated, although in such cases welfare rises when PT is banned. |
| Keywords: | Parallel trade; Intellectual Property Rights; R&D investment; Vertical contract; Regulation |
| JEL: | L12 L43 F15 O34 |
| Date: | 2011–05 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:aeg:wpaper:2011-5&r=tid |
| By: | Priit Vahter (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham); James Love (Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham); Stephen Roper (Small and Medium Sized Enterprise Centre, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick) |
| Abstract: | Traditionally, literature on open innovation has concentrated on analysis of larger firms. We explore whether and how the benefits of openness in innovation are different for small firms (less than 50 employees) compared to medium and large ones. Using panel data over a long time period (1994-2008) from Irish manufacturing plants, we find that small plants have on average significantly lower levels of openness, a pattern which has not changed significantly since the early 1990s. However, the effect of ‘breadth’ of openness (i.e. variety of innovation linkages) on innovation performance is stronger for small firms than for larger firms. For small firms (with 10-49 employees) external linkages account for around 40 per cent of innovative sales compared to around 25 per cent in larger firms. Small plants also reach the limits to benefitting from openness at lower levels of breadth of openness than larger firms. Our results suggest that small firms can gain significantly from adopting an open innovation strategy, but for such firms appropriate partner choice is a particularly important issue. |
| Keywords: | Open innovation; SMEs; boundary-spanning linkages; learning effects; Ireland |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:sme:wpaper:113&r=tid |
| By: | Jennifer Hunt; Jean-Philippe Garant; Hannah Herman; David J. Munroe |
| Abstract: | We investigate women's underrepresentation among holders of commercialized patents: only 5.5% of holders of such patents are female. Using the National Survey of College Graduates 2003, we find only 7% of the gap is accounted for by women's lower probability of holding any science or engineering degree, because women with such a degree are scarcely more likely to patent than women without. Differences among those without a science or engineering degree account for 15%, while 78% is accounted for by differences among those with a science or engineering degree. For the latter group, we find that women's underrepresentation in engineering and in jobs involving development and design explain much of the gap; closing it would increase U.S. GDP per capita by 2.7%. |
| JEL: | J7 O31 |
| Date: | 2012–03 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17888&r=tid |