Technological change: An analysis of the diffusion and implications of e-business technologies

This is a monograph that presents both a comprehensive literature review and original research results on the diffusion and the implications of e-business technologies. The diffusion of e-business technologies among firms is regarded as part of the ongoing process of technological change and economic development. It is shown that increasing returns to adoption can arise if the technologies do not substitute each other in their functionalities, leading to an endogenous acceleration mechanism of technological development. Hence, the probability to adopt any e- business technology is hypothesized to be an increasing function of previously adopted, related technologies. Early mover advantages can exist until the early mover has exhausted all possibilities of the new technological paradigm that promise positive returns on investment. Thus, history matters for the technological development of a firm and adoption decision today affect the expected value of any other related technology in the future. The existence of the endogenous acceleration mechanism has important implications for the management of new technologies, the performance of enterprises, the development of market structures and entire economies. The theory is empirically tested and supported in four independent inquiries, using two different exceptionally large datasets and different econometric methods. The existence of a growing digital divide among companies is demonstrated for the period between 1994 and 2002. In addition, the adoption of new e-business technologies by firms creates opportunities to conduct innovation, either to reduce the costs for a given output, to create a new product or service, or to deliver products to customers in a way that is new to the enterprise. Hence, it is argued that the adoption of new technologies does have strategic relevance for firms. Empirical evidence is presented showing that e-business technologies are currently an important enabler of innovations. It is found that innovative firms are more likely to grow. Also, e-business related innovations are at the very least not inferior to traditional kinds of innovations in terms of simultaneous occurrence with superior financial performance of enterprises. The study takes an interdisciplinary approach by relating both to the economics and the management literature, with the objective to show complementarities between both research fields and to draw conclusions for both kinds of audiences.Technological change, innovation, diffusion, adoption, multiple related technologies, e-business, ICT, firm performance, endogenous acceleration, competitive advantage

The Relationship between Technology, Innovation, and Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence on E-Business in Europe

This article analyzes the relationship between the usage of Internet-based technologies, different types of innovation, and performance at the firm level. Data for the empirical investigation originates from a sample of 7,302 European enterprises. The empirical results show that Internet-based technologies were an important enabler of innovation in the year 2003. It was found that all studied types of innovation, including Internet-enabled and non-Internet-enabled product or process innovations, are positively associated with turnover and employment growth. Firms that rely on Internet-enabled innovations are at least as likely to grow as firms that rely on non-Internet-enabled innovations. Finally, it was found that innovative activity is not necessarily associated with higher profitability. Possible reasons for this and implications are discussed

Peer Influence in Network Markets: An Empirical Investigation

We analyze the effect of peer influence on the diffusion of an innovative network good. We argue that the adopters of a network good have an incentive to convince others to purchase the same product because their ut

Attractive Supervisors: How Does the Gender of the Supervisor Influence the Performance of the Supervisees?

A series of field and laboratory experiments were conducted in which single-sex groups of male or female students competed in different intellectual tasks to earn money or university grades (N = 291). The supervisor of these groups was one of several youn

The Influence of Installed Technologies on Future Adoption Decisions: Empirical Evidence from E-Business

This paper studies the adoption times of various e-business technologies in a large sample of firms from 10 different industry sectors and 25 European countries between 1994 and 2002. The results show that the probability of adoption increases with the number of previously adopted e-business technologies. Hence, the more advanced a firm is in using e-business technologies, the more likely it is to adopt additional e-business technologies, provided technologies do not substitute each other in their functionalities. This result is relevant for the marketing of new technologies, strategic planning and, from an economic perspective, for the convergence of growth across regions

Joy leads to Overconfidence, and a Simple Remedy

Overconfidence has been identified as a source of suboptimal decision making in many real- life domains, and it often has far-reaching consequences. Here, we demonstrate a causal mechanism that leads to overconfidence and show a simple, effective remedy for it in an incentive-compatible experimental study. We show that joy induces overconfidence if the reason for joy (an unexpected gift) is unrelated to the judgment task and if participants were not made specifically aware of our mood manipulation. In contrast, we observed well- calibrated judgments among participants in a control group who were in their resting mood. Furthermore, we found well-calibrated judgments am

Unemployment Benefits Crowd Out Nascent Entrepreneurial Activity

Analyzing a cross-country panel of 16 OECD countries from 2002 to 2005, we find that higher unemployment benefits crowd out nascent entrepreneurial activity. Our results hold regardless of entrepreneurial motivation (necessity or opportunity) and entrepreneurial type (imitative or innovative)

Ondernemerschap en de recessie

Ondernemerschap is een belangrijk en onderschat instrument om recessies te bestrijden. Het is een voorspeller van de economische cyclus, en meer ondernemerschap leidt tot kortere recessies. Ook kunnen ondernemers het vertrouwen in het reddingsplan van de overheid vergroten

I Can’t Get No Satisfaction - Necessity Entrepreneurship and Procedural Utility

We study a unique sample of 1,547 nascent entrepreneurs in Germany and analyze which factors are associated with their start-up satisfaction. Our results identify a group of nascent entrepreneurs that “cannot get