We explore how interorganizational networks coevolve with technology in the modern flight simulation industry. Since industries characterized by complex technologies, like flight simulation, rely on cooperative groups such as technical committees, task forces, and standards bodies to adjudicate the process of technological evolution, we focus on these groups and term them “cooperative technical organizations ” (CTOs). Focusing on CTOs enables a multi-level examination of interorganizational networks, as individuals represent their employing organizations in CTOs, mapping into overlapping membership patterns which generate community-wide networks. We develop a set of propositions on the emergence, growth and re-formation of CTO networks, and explore how the evolution of these networks both shapes and is constrained by technological outcomes in the flight simulation industry. We argue that varying levels of technological uncertainty between eras of ferment (high uncertainty) and eras of incremental change (low uncertainty) engender fundamentally different modes of network evolution: social construction during eras of ferment, and technological determinism during eras of incremental

Standards play an important role within information and communication technology as it becomes networked and complex. No single model has yet been developed to address how successful standards emerge. We propose a dynamic process model of standardization that integrates separate lines of inquiry to standardization activities including Simon’s theory of artifact design (D), Weick’s concept of sense-making (S) and Latour’s concept of negotiation in socio-technical networks (N), and organizes them into a hierarchically organized web of standardization events. We investigate three standardization processes in the telecommunication industry with the D-S-N model to explain the progression of these standardization processes.

By identifying the possibility that technologies with inferior performance can displace established incumbents, the notion of disruptive technologies, pioneered by Christensen (1997), has had a profound effect on the way in which scholars and managers approach technology competition. While the phenomenon of disruptive technologies has been well documented, the underlying theoretical drivers of technology disruption are less well understood. This article identifies the demand conditions that enable disruptive dynamics. By examining how consumers evaluate technology and how this evaluation changes as performance improves, it offers new theoretical insight into the impact of the structure of the demand environment on competitive dynamics. Two new constructs—preference overlap and preference symmetry—are introduced to characterize the relationships among the preferences of different market segments. The article presents a formal model that examines how these relationships lead to the emergence of different competitive regimes. The model is analyzed using computer simulation. The theory and model results hold implications for understanding the dynamics of disruptive technologies and suggest new indicators for assessing disruptive threats. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. From S-curves (Foster, 1986), to technology

Incremental product innovation is a critically important competitive factor in established industries. Firms in the cardiac pacemaker industry often benefit by bringing incremental innovations to market even though the new products may cannibalize the sales of existing profitable products. The more often an industry incumbent was among the first to introduce important incremental product innovations the greater its market share in the industry, while adopting innovations that had been introduced by competitors had a small positive relationship with greater market share. The greater the number of competitors that introduced similar products, the greater the market share of firms that were first to market. Greater market share, in turn, reduced the likelihood of business dissolution, while introducing important incremental innovations provided little or no reduction in the likelihood of business dissolution net of the effects of the market share that the firm achieved. The results apply most directly to industries in which buyers incur moderate switching costs. This paper investigates how an industry incumbent’s market share and business survival are affected by the firm’s tendency to lead or follow its competitors when introducing important incremental product innovations. We define important incremental product innovations as refinements and extensions of established designs that result in substantial price or functional benefits to users (Dosi, 1982; Henderson and Clark, 1990). A substantial literature addresses entry timing influences on market share and survival, but much of this work either addresses Key words: incremental innovations; business survival; market share; industry incumbents paradigmatic technical change, focuses on entry into new markets, or treats new product introductions as isolated events (e.g. Biggadike, 1979;

All authors contributed equally. The names are arranged in alphabetical order

This paper closely studies the historical experiences of computer users faced with incompatibility problems. One key point throughout the discussion is that operating system compatibilities and application software were the principal source of switching costs. The larger point here is that vendor specificity is partially a choice-variable for the buyer. It influences many facets of an organization, as well as management and employee behavior. Foresighted users anticipate that daily decisions regarding programming practices and equipment maintenance influence the costs of switching during a later vendor decision. Buyers take a wide variety of actions, both simple and complex. Most of the paper is concerned with documenting and analyzing how buyers change investments, collect information, manipulate bidding procedures and change managements practices—either in anticipation of, or in response to, incompatibility problems.

Technological change at the #rm-level has commonly been modeled as random sampling from a #xed distribution of possibilities. Such models, however, typically ignore empirically important aspects of the #rm's search process,notably the observation that the present state of the #rm guides future innovation. In this paper we explicitly treat this aspect of the #rm's search for technological improvements by introducing a #technology landscape" into an otherwise standard dynamic programming setting where the optimal strategy is to assign a reservation price to each possible technology. Search is modeled as movement,constrained by the cost of innovation, over the technology landscape. Simulations are presented on a stylized technology landscape while analytic results are derived using landscapes that are similar to Markov random #elds. We #nd that early in the search for technological improvements,if the initial position is poor or average,it is optimal to search far away on the technology l...

This study develops and tests three sets of predictions concerning new design introduction during the initial period of ferment in a new product market. We root our predictions most directly in the evolutionary economic concepts of local search and performance heuristics. First, we argue that new entrants will introduce most designs that are new to a product market during an initial period of ferment. Second, we argue that local search will lead most product market incumbents that introduce second or subsequent designs after their entry to introduce designs that are similar to those incorporated in their existing products. Third, we argue that firms selling products based on designs that are losing aggregate share in the market will be likely to introduce products based on new designs, while firms losing market share to firms that are selling the same design are unlikely to introduce new designs. Our empirical analysis examines the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) subfield of the diagnostic imaging equipment industry between 1980 and 1986, a period that begins with the introduction of the first MRI design and ends with the emergence of widely accepted design characteristics. The results support the argument that local search and performance heuristics, along with other market factors and business characteristics, influence

This paper presents a model that complements the research stream of transaction cost economics with the dynamic capabilities approach. The paper shows that, even though technological alliances involving specific assets deployed in emerging industries are exposed to high transaction costs, they possess attributes that make them attractive. First, they facilitate the creation of tacit competencies, and second, they reduce the uncertainty arising from technological innovation and regulatory changes. The model is empirically tested in the hazardous waste management industry by using primary data collected through the use of questionnaires. The method links governance structure choices to managers' perceptions of the uncertainty surrounding the acquisition of technology

This paper proposes an integrative framework for understanding the process by which a technology achieves dominance when “battling” against other technological designs. We focus on describing the different stages of a dominance battle and propose five battle milestones that in turn define five key phases in the process. We review the literature from several disciplines to identify the key firm- and environment-level factors that affect the outcome of a technology battle and posit that the relative importance of each factor will vary depending on the phase considered. Our framework complements and extends existing literature and has implications both for theory and for management practice.