Reallocating innovative resources around growth bottlenecks

Economy-wide increasing returns to scale embodied in a general purpose technology (GPT) and its applications are often a key source of long-run growth. Yet the successful exploitation of increasing returns calls for coordination on a particular technological direction, reducing flexibility and choice ex post and potentially creating a growth bottleneck. When the bottleneck is controlled by a single firm, the resulting entry barriers reduce the ability of demanders to choose superior, alternative technologies. We examine how such a growth bottleneck can eventually be overcome under certain key conditions. Demand must be fundamentally diverse so that the original GPT does not serve all demanders. Firms barred from entry into the primary GPT market can then reallocate innovative resources to create new markets to meet the unserved demand. The demand in these new markets must be valuable enough (even if not as valuable as in the primary GPT market) to generate a positive-feedback cycle that results in considerable technical advance in the alternative GPT. This ultimately can lead to indirect entry by the alternative GPT into the original GPT market if and when it becomes strong enough to compete with the original GPT. This sequence of (i) increasing returns to scale around a GPT, (ii) reallocation of innovative resources around growth bottlenecks, and (iii) indirect entry has growth implications. A large contribution to growth follows the exploitation of increasing returns to scale in the original GPT. Much later, another large contribution to growth follows when demand is finally met by an alternative, competitive GPT. Between these two periods falls a period of lesser contributions to growth due to the dominant firm bottleneck. The market-based resolution of the bottleneck is not merely a theoretical possibility. We illustrate the role of this sequence in the two most important technologies for automating white-collar work of the past 50 years

The role of the host in a cooperating mainframe and workstation environment, volumes 1 and 2

In recent years, advancements made in computer systems have prompted a move from centralized computing based on timesharing a large mainframe computer to distributed computing based on a connected set of engineering workstations. A major factor in this advancement is the increased performance and lower cost of engineering workstations. The shift to distributed computing from centralized computing has led to challenges associated with the residency of application programs within the system. In a combined system of multiple engineering workstations attached to a mainframe host, the question arises as to how does a system designer assign applications between the larger mainframe host and the smaller, yet powerful, workstation. The concepts related to real time data processing are analyzed and systems are displayed which use a host mainframe and a number of engineering workstations interconnected by a local area network. In most cases, distributed systems can be classified as having a single function or multiple functions and as executing programs in real time or nonreal time. In a system of multiple computers, the degree of autonomy of the computers is important; a system with one master control computer generally differs in reliability, performance, and complexity from a system in which all computers share the control. This research is concerned with generating general criteria principles for software residency decisions (host or workstation) for a diverse yet coupled group of users (the clustered workstations) which may need the use of a shared resource (the mainframe) to perform their functions

A comparison of management of virtual machines with z/VM and ESX Server

Virtualization and virtual machines are becoming more and more important for businesses. By consolidating many servers to run as virtual machine on a single host companies can save considerable amounts on money. The savings come from the better utilization of the hardware, and by having less hardware that needs maintenance. There are several products for virtualization, and different methods to acheive the virtualization. This thesis will focus on comparing VMware ESX Server and z/VM. These products are quite different and run on different hardware. The primary focus of the comparison will be on management of the two different products.Master i nettverks- og systemadministrasjo

Beyond the software factory : a comparison of "classic" and PC software developers

Includes bibliographical references.Stanley A. Smith and Michael A. Cusumano

Hegemony and its discontents: A critical analysis of organizational knowledge transfer

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to discuss the phenomenon of knowledge transfer within multinational corporations (MNCs), and how the imperatives of thought and action that constitute new knowledge are received in the terrain that constitutes the MNC subsidiary. Design/methodology/approach - This study employs an ethnographic approach, and juxtaposes primary data collection with a variety of secondary data sources. Findings - The data are analyzed in light of the theoretical construct of hegemony, and three themes theorized that underlie the process of knowledge transfer. These include knowledge loss at the local level, the coercive practices that ensure knowledge transfer, and the invocation of imperial subjectivities by the headquarters of the MNC when dealing with subsidiaries from poorer nations. Originality/value - This paper goes beyond the mainstream approaches into organizational knowledge transfer, by analyzing these issues in light of political economy, and the changing landscape of industrial accumulation. It offers in some measure, the building blocks of a different organizational theory, one that is sensitive to those subjects who are consigned to the periphery of mainstream organizing

Networking vendor strategy and competition and their impact on enterprise network design and implementation

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2006.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-99).While a significant amount of literature exists that discuss platform strategies used by general IT vendors, less of it has to do with corporate networking technology vendors specifically. However, many of the same strategic principles that are used to analyze general IT vendors can also be used to analyze networking vendors. This paper extends the platform model that was developed by Michael Cusumano and Annabel Gawer to networking vendors, outlining the unique strategic aspects that the networking market possesses. The paper then reviews the strategy of the first dominant corporate datacom vendor, IBM, how it achieved its dominance, and how it lost it. The paper then discusses the strategies of various vendors who attempted to replace IBM as the dominant networking platform vendor and how they failed to do so. Finally, the paper discusses Cisco Systems, a vendor who did manage to achieve a level of dominance that parallels IBM's, and how that company has utilized its strategy to achieve and maintain its current dominance. Finally, Cisco's current strategic challenges are discussed. The impact of the strategies of the various vendors on the evolution of corporate networking is also discussed.by Ray Fung.S.M.M.B.A

Computer bargaining in México and Brazil 1970-1990: dynamic interplay of industry and politics

Theories of host country – TNC bargaining seek to explain dependency shifts based on positional assets and relative capabilities. This analysis of the efforts of México and Brazil to promote and direct the development of a national computer industry from 1977 to 1990 reveals a bargaining landscape that is more dynamic than the traditional bargaining model anticipates. This thesis explains the variable nature of bargaining gains and losses by analysing the on-going, complex interplay of political, industry and market forces. Despite industry characteristics that favoured foreign capital, both México and Brazil achieved bargaining gains in the computer industry. Brazilian state actors enticed national finance and industrial groups to invest in the industry, prompted the development of indigenous technological capacity, and limited the market influence of computer transnationals for more than a decade. With more limited policy ambition, support and duration, México had initial success prompting TNC minority joint ventures in microcomputers and extracting concessions from the TNCs for exports. In both cases, however, bargaining gains were not secure; shifts in dependency were not progressive and one-directional. In fact, the study exposes a reverse trend toward greater dependency on foreign capital in both countries. For this reason one may not employ either case to support the obsolescing bargain in high technology industries. This thesis highlights three factors neglected by the traditional bargaining construct: the dynamism of the global computer industry which opened and close

Solving the year 2000 dilemma

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1552/thumbnail.jp