Strange Bedfellows in the Personal Computer Industry: Technology Alliances between IBM and Apple

Until recently technological development in the personal computer industry could be characterized by the competition between two basic designs. The current dominant design in this industry is associated with the IBM and Microsoft personal computing architecture. The other version of personal computing originated in the Macintosh computer from Apple Computer Company. In recent years we also see an increasing number of alliances between IBM and Apple. Joint technological development appears to be a major and somewhat surprising objective of these alliances. This paper analyzes the technology alliances between these companies in the context of recent technological changes, focusing on the timing and the objectives of these alliances. Technology partnering between these proponents of competing basic designs are found to only materialize several years after the DOS-based design of IBM and Microsoft had become dominant. This study is of a qualitative and exploratory nature, using both a small data set and two case studies.management and organization theory ;

Lead Markets: Drivers of the Global Diffusion of Innovations

Multinational corporations are often faced with regionally varying market conditions, local environments and demand preferences. This paper presents the lead markets concept of developing global innovation that takes advantage of the lead market phenomenon. A lead market is a regional market that is first to adopt global innovation designs. A system of five lead factors explains the lead role of a market: a demand advantage, a price advantage, an export advantage, a transfer advantage and a market structure advantage. The system of lead market factors is then evaluated in a detailed case study of the cellular mobile telephone industry. It is suggested that companies can harness lead markets for the development of global innovations. By developing and refining innovations in close interaction with the local environment of a lead market, a company can focus on a narrow range of preferences and feedback, lowering the risk of being locked into idiosyncratic environments, and generate true global innovations.International diffusion of innovation, R&D internationalisation, Market entry strategy

Complementary Resources and the Exploitation of Technological Innovations

Technological innovation often results when the resources of a small firm are combined with those of a large one. This is because small and large firms characteristically possess complementary resources whose combination can facilitate innovation success. The possession of complementary innovation-producing resources by small and large firms helps explain patterns of interaction among firms in dynamic, technology-based industries. Propositions are developed that outline how typical resources of small and large firms can be used to explain industry-level phenomena surrounding technological change

Innovation, Learning and Cluster Dynamics

This chapter offers a theory and an analytical framework for the analysis of cluster dynamics, i.e. the innovative performance and evolution of clusters.It develops three types of embedding: institutional embedding, structural embedding (network structure), and relational embedding (type and strength of ties).The analysis is conducted from a perspective of both competence (learning) arising from relations and governance of relational risk, which includes risk of lock-in and risk of spillover.A basic proposition is that innovative clusters face the challenge of combining exploration and exploitation.Hypotheses are specified concerning differences between networks for exploration and exploitation, and concerning combinations and transitions between them.Arguments are presented that in some important respects go against the thesis of the strength of weak ties .Some empirical evidence is presented from recent studies.innovation;organizational learning;clusters;industrial districts;networks

Systemic Innovation in a Distributed Network Paradox or Pinnacle?

Previous research has suggested that there is a dichotomy of organisational practices: companies involved in autonomous or modularised innovations, it is argued, benefit from decentralised approaches where coordination primarily takes place through the marketplace, whereas the benefits of systemic innovation are said to be appropriated best by centralised organisations. However, case studies of subcontractors to the Danish wind turbine industry suggest that the ability to meet heterogeneous demands plays an important role for the success of different forms of organisational practices in relation to innovation. The modularised versus systemic architecture approach therefore appears to be a too sweeping dichotomy for describing what can better be perceived as an array of different practices for balancing innovation contribution with the ability of individual firms to appropriate innovation benefits – and a heterogeneous market perception is a core element in building and sustaining this ability.Organisational Forms, Innovation System, Knowledge Complementarities, Value Appropriation

The Two Faces of Open Innovation: NetworkExternalities and Learning.

In this paper I differentiate between two types of benefits of open innova- tion. Network externalities e¤ect happens when open innovation increases the participation of one group of users which increases the value of adoption for another group of users. Learning e¤ect happens when economic actors increase their knowledge through access to external sources of knowledge. I investigate how each effect can be dominant depending on nature of products, by drawing upon previous research in product modularity. In addition I discuss the fac- tors which will strengthen or weaken the e¤ects of each dimension. The main variables which influence learning are, tacitness of knowledge, technological op- portunities, appropriability of knowledge and turbulence. Network externalities e¤ect can be strengthened by increased user innovation.

Open, distributed and user-centered: Towards a paradigm shift in innovation policy

Today's innovation policies ignore that innovation is increasingly open, distributed and user-centered. In this paper we introduce the user-centered model as an alternative paradigm of how innovation 'works'. We discuss how it differs from traditional, linear producer-centered model, argue why it is legitimate to develop policies in support of it, and provide specific directions. �

The Emergence of a Dominant Design – a study on hydrogen prototypes

The notion of dominant designs deals with dominance in the market and the dominant design is thought to be dominant because of market selection forces. The notion thus ignores the possible selection that takes place in pre-market R&D stages of technological trajectories. In this paper we ask the question whether pre-market selection takes place and if this can lead to an early dominant design. Furthermore we study what selection criteria apply during this phase, in the absence of actual market criteria. We do so through an analysis of prototyping trajectories for hydrogen vehicles. Prototypes are used by firms in their internal search process towards new designs and at the same time they are means of communicating technological expectations to outsiders. In both senses, prototypes can be taken as indicators of technological trajectories in the ongoing search process of an industry for the dominant prototype design of the future. Using prototypes as representation of intermediate outcomes of the search process, a dominant design can possibly be recognized also in a pre-market phase of development. We analyzed the designs of prototypes of hydrogen passenger cars from the 1970s till 2008. In our analysis we try to show to what extent the designs configurations of the technological components, converge or diverge over time. For this we compiled a database of 224 prototypes of hydrogen passenger cars. The database describes: the car’s manufacturer, year of construction, type of drivetrain, fuel cell type, and capacity of its hydrogen storage system. We draw conclusions with regard to the convergence/divergence of the prototypes’ designs and the role of diverse performance criteria therein. We conclude that there is convergence towards a dominant design in the prototyping phase; the PEM fuel cell combined with high pressure storage. Performance played a role as selection criterion, but so did regulation and strategic behaviour of the firms. Especially imitation dynamics, with industry leaders and followers, seems to be the major explanatory factor.Dominant design, expectations, prototypes, hydrogen, fuel cell

Managing competences in entrepreneurial technology firms: a comparative institutional analysis of Germany, Sweden and the UK

Innovative firms face two major kinds of risks in developing new technologies: competence destruction and appropriability. High levels of technical uncertainty and radical changes in knowledge in some fields generate high technical failure risks and make it difficult to plan research and development programmes. They therefore encourage high levels of flexibility in acquiring and using skilled staff. Appropriability risks, on the other hand, encourage innovative firms to develop organisation-specific competences through investing in complementary assets, such as marketing and distribution capabilities, that involve longer-term employer-employee commitments to building complex organisations. These connections between technology risks and employment policies help to explain why different kinds of market economies with contrasting labour market institutions develop varied innovation patterns. This study focuses on subsectors of the computer software and biotechnology industries in three distinct Europea n countries, UK, Germany and Sweden, that vary in their level of technical change and appropriability.n/a

Customer - Driven Innovation in the Electrical, Optical and ICT Industry

Before being adopted internationally, successful innovation designs tend to have been preferred in one particular country or region. These countries or regions can subsequently be labelled as Lead Markets. This paper employs a Lead Market approach to assess for each of the 25 European Union member states (EU-25) its likelihood that locally preferred innovation designs in the Electrical/Optical/ICT Industry become successful in other countries. A system of five particular demand- and country-specific attributes - the so called Lead Market factors – is regarded as critical for the probability of the market becoming a Lead Market: price advantage, demand advantage, export advantage, transfer advantage and market structure advantage. The aim of this paper is to identify and operationalise indicators to measure and compare the Lead Market properties at international level. The indicators used are taken from the Community Innovation Surveys (CIS-3 and CIS-4), the Eurostat/OECD PPP and Expenditure Database at BH level, the UNCTAD FDI-Database, the EU Business Demography Statistics, and the Eurostat Foreign Trade Database (Comext). Based on the Lead Market analysis, implications for policy makers are outlined.Lead Markets, innovation diffusion, European Union, sectoral analysis