Product and Process Innovations in the Life Cycle of an Industry

Filson (2001) uses industry-level data on firm numbers, price, quantity, and quality along with an equilibrium model of industry evolution to estimate the nature and effects of quality and cost improvement in the personal computer industry and four other new industries. This paper studies the person computer industry in more detail and shows that the model explains some peculiar patterns that cannot be explained by previous life-cycle models. The model's estimates are evaluated using historical studies on the evolution of the personal computer industry, and patterns that require further model development are described.technology; technological change; industry dynamics; personal computer market; microelectronics

Dynamic Common Agency, Vertical Integration, and Investment: The Economics of Movie Distribution

This paper analyzes the impact of vertical integration on investment and other strategies in a dynamic common agency framework. Movie distribution is used as a motivating example. The model matches several facts about movie distribution; distributors avoid head-to-head new hit releases, hits have longer runs than flops, and distributors receive the lion’s share of value generated by hits. Welfare comparisons show that integration is privately profitable and may improve social welfare even though it reduces industry profits. The e.ects of integration on strategies and welfare depend critically on how integration a.ects the bargaining power of the non-integrated firm.common agency; exclusive dealing; entertainment; film; licensing

Horizontal Mergers and Exit in Declining Industries

Previous work on exit in declining industries has neglected mergers. We examine a simple model that predicts which declining industries experience horizontal mergers. Mergers are more likely if 1) market concentration is high; 2) the inverse demand curve is steep at high levels of output and flat at low levels of output; and 3) the industry declines slowly early on and rapidly later on. The conditions that make mergers privately profitable also tend to make them socially optimal. We test the model using U.S. manufacturing industries that declined during 1975-1995 and find some empirical support.takeover; restructuring; consolidation; industry dynamics; failing industries

The Impact of E-Commerce Strategies on Firm Value: Lessons from Amazon.com

Managers would like to understand which strategies generate value in e-commerce environments, and researchers are just beginning to explore this issue. Which strategies are useful and which are not? In a step towards answering this question, we estimate the impacts of several competitive strategies on the value of Amazon.com, the well-known Internet retailer, during its first 1000 days as a publicly traded firm. The strategies analyzed include pricing, offline expansion, alliance formation, product line expansion, and service improvement. The results provide insight into the usefulness of various ways of competing online and could be useful for strategic planning in new Internet ventures.alliance; competitive advantage; competitive strategy; event studies; internet; valuation

Equity Links and Information Acquisition in Biotechnology Alliances

We use a simple model of collaborative innovation to structure an empirical analysis of minority equity links in biotechnology alliances between clients and R&D firms. In the model, an equity link is an investment in information acquisition: it improves the ability of the client to learn about the R&D firm’s ability and the alliance project’s quality. The model generates several testable hypotheses about how the R&D firm’s project characteristics and previous alliances affect the use of equity links in new alliances. We test the hypotheses using a large data set of biotechnology alliances and find empirical support.alliance; collaboration; integration; joint venture; technological change

Group Consumption, Free Riding, and Informal Reciprocity Agreements

We examine conditions under which group consumption is likely to involve informal and tacit reciprocity agreements rather than formal contracts and the price system. Our model shows that informal reciprocity agreements are more likely to be used when transaction costs of formal agreements are high, the good is relatively inexpensive, each consumer's demand is not too responsive to price changes, the group is likely to continue to interact over time, the consumers are patient, the time between interactions is short, and the group is small and homogeneous. Further, the results suggest that informal sharing agreements are more likely to involve goods that are consumed along with other group benefits, such as conversation and companionship. We conclude by analyzing investments in social capital and discussing the effects of deeper social interactions constrained by norm structures on our results.club; institution; non-market; reciprocal; social capital

Industry Evolution: New Technologies and New Firms

This paper investigates the effects of employee mobility on industry evolution and technology diffusion by testing a dynamic industry equilibrium model introduced in Franco and Filson (1999). The model focuses on a particular type of employee mobility: researchers can leave existing firms and attempt to form new firms (spin-outs). The model has four testable results: First, spin-outs are an important source of entry. Second, spin-out founds come from firms with high know-how. Third, firms with high know-how are more likely to survive. Fourth, spin-outs whose parents have high know-how are more likely to survive. Using data from the rigid disk drive industry (1977-1997), we find support for the first three results and mixed support for the fourth.spin-off; industry dynamics; technological change; innovation; research and development

Knowledge diffusion through employee mobility

In high-tech industries, one important method of diffusion is through employee mobility: many of the entering firms are started by employees from incumbent firms using some of their former employers’ technological know-how. This paper explores the effect of incorporating this mechanism in a general industry framework by allowing employees to imitate their employers’ know-how. The equilibrium is Pareto optimal since the employees “pay” for the possibility of learning their employers’ know-how. The model’s implications are consistent with data from the rigid disk drive industry. These implications concern the effects of know-how on firm formation and survival.Technological innovations ; Research and development

Knowledge Diffusion through Employee Mobility

In high-tech industries, one important method of diffusion is through employee mobility: many of the entering firms are started by employees from incumbent firms using some of their former employers' technological know-how. This paper explores the effect of incorporating this mechanism in a general industry framework by allowing employees to imitate their employers' know-how. The equilibrium is Pareto optimal since the employees "pay" for the possibility of learning their employers' know-how. The model's implications are consistent with data from the rigid disk drive industry. These implications concern the effects of know-how on firm formation and survival.socio-political instability; endogenous growth; public investment; political economy of growth