Industrial Evolution

This paper examines the governance challenges of digital marketing innovations by multinational corporations (MNCs) in fragile states, focusing on South Sudan. While these innovations drive economic growth, they operate in a regulatory vacuum, risking consumer exploitation, data privacy breaches, and unchecked monopolies. Through a policy review of legislation, development reports, and academic literature, the study reveals South Sudan's outdated legal framework, ill-equipped for a digital economy. This gap has spurred corporate innovation but left consumers vulnerable. The paper proposes a three-tiered policy solution: data protection laws, modernized consumer rights, and digital literacy initiatives. The goal is balanced governance that fosters innovation while ensuring inclusive, sustainable development.

Additive manufacturing (AM), more popularly known as '3D printing', is believed by many commentators to be underpinning a new manufacturing revolution. AM encompasses a broad range of manufacturing process technologies that are emerging to offer the prospect of on-demand, mass personalisation, with more localised, flexible and sustainable production (Hutchings and Martin, 2012; Mortara, 2009; Despeisse and Ford, 2015). Its adoption and implementation could disrupt the organisation of manufacturing and the ways in which companies capture value. In industry, AM is the accepted term, while '3D printing' is commonly used to denote those machines used primarily by home users. The terms are often used interchangeably and both refer to "a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies" (ASTM, 2012). AM is not just a single technology. Instead there are a multitude of different technologies, each at differing levels of technological maturity, offering the option of using different materials, with different quality outputs. Among many classifications of AM, the ASTM propose seven categories depending on how the layers are created: (1) vat photopolymerisation; (2) material jetting; (3) binder jetting; (4) material extrusion; (5) powder bed fusion; (6) sheet; and (7) directed energy deposition.

As scientists are able to understand and manipulate ever smaller scales of matter, research in the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology has converged to enable such radical innovations as lab-on-a-chip devices, targeted drug delivery, and other forms of minimally invasive therapy and diagnostics. This paper provides a descriptive overview of the emerging bio-nano sector, identifying what types of firms are entering, from what knowledge base, where they are located, and their strategic choices in terms of technological diversity and R&D strategy. The firms engaged in bio-nano research and development span the range from start-up firm to multinational pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical, and electronics firms: two thirds of bio-nano firms are relatively young and relatively small. The United States dominates this sector, with more than half of all bio-nano firms located in the USA. Even within this sector which epitomizes the convergence of technology, there is a broad range of technological diversity, with the most diverse firms overall coming from a base in electronics, the most diverse start-up firms coming from a base in nanomaterials, and the most narrowly focused firms coming from a biotechnology/pharmaceutical base. We find that hybridization has been the dominant knowledge diversity strategy, with 93% of the bio-nano firms with nano-patents holding multiclass patents.

Based on the premise that organizational learning and structural inertia are both rooted in prior organizational experiences, this paper examines under what conditions adaptation or selection will take place. We find that implementing a core change generates negative repercussions for survival but this effect can be countered by leveraging relevant core competencies. But we also argue that which of the two outcomes occurs is generally beyond the control of the organization. Instead, environmental transformations render what firms have learned relevant or obsolete, thereby facilitating learning-based adaptation or inertia-based selection. The direction in which organizational learning evolves is a combined function of organizational demographics and the structure of the competitive environment. We propose relevant hypotheses and test them in the analysis of data from the Italian Automobile Industry, 1896-1981. We report results of hazard rate models of failure and position change and discuss general implications.

As scientists are able to understand and manipulate ever smaller scales of matter, research in the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology has converged to enable such radical innovations as lab-on-a-chip devices, targeted drug delivery, and other forms of minimally invasive therapy and diagnostics. This paper provides a descriptive overview of the emerging bio-nano sector, identifying what types of firms are entering, from what knowledge base, where they are located, and their strategic choices in terms of technological diversity and R&D strategy. The firms engaged in bio-nano research and development span the range from start-up firm to multinational pharmaceutical, biotech, chemical, and electronics firms: two thirds of bio-nano firms are relatively young and relatively small. The United States dominates this sector, with more than half of all bio-nano firms located in the USA. Even within this sector which epitomizes the convergence of technology, there is a broad range of technological diversity, with the most diverse firms overall coming from a base in electronics, the most diverse start-up firms coming from a base in nanomaterials, and the most narrowly focused firms coming from a biotechnology/pharmaceutical base. We find that hybridization has been the dominant knowledge diversity strategy, with 93% of the bio-nano firms with nano-patents holding multiclass patents.

Economists have long sought to understand how product-specific traits drive industry outcomes, but the conclusions that could be drawn have been limited by shortage of dynamic competitive theories and empirical fact. The paper draws on a theoretical model in which technological opportunity drives industry evolution, fueling a spiral of advantage that allows a few firms to dominate in the long run in specific types of markets. The theory has distinctive implications that can be tested using a new type of long-period, cross-sectional, cross-national industry data on narrowly-defined product markets. To meet these extremely demanding empirical requirements, the paper marshals novel data that span many decades for 18 matched industries in the US and the UK. Several new and important empirical results emerge from the tests. Previous work had found that static industry concentration levels are similar in matched industries across countries, but moreover the entire process by which industr...

Despite growing consensus that different types of technological innovations emerge from different paths and have differing effects on an organization’s behavior and performance, there has been little conceptual and empirical work on how (organizational) ecological processes influence the rate of occurrence of different types of innovation, such as incremental or radical innovation, and their consequences for organizational performance. We predict that organizational scope and niche crowding increase the rate of incremental innovation, while prior experience in another industry lowers the rate of both incremental and radical innovation. Further, we argue that while innovation itself may improve an organization’s survival chances, the simultaneous occurrence of radical innovation with other organizational changes, such as a change in market position, is likely to lower the organization’s survival chances. Our results are consistent with the implications of a cascading model of organiz...

According to the life cycle model of technological evolution, after the emergence of a dominant design, technological product industries undergo an "era of incremental change." This era of incremental change is not well understood in the existing literature. Although the period is typically characterized in terms of stability and minimal innovation, we find that the era of incremental change can be actually quite dynamic. Through our research into the period of time following the emergence of a dominant design in automotive emission control systems, we find that the overall product innovation in the industry did not decline immediately following the dominant design, and increased throughout the era of incremental change. Further, we find that firms maintain their attention on the same core components that they innovated upon before the dominant design, but that these components make up less of the overall proportion of total innovation throughout the era of incremental change. Finally, we found that the concentration of innovating firms in the industry increases immediately following the dominant design, and this concentration decreases over time throughout the era of incremental change. Findings imply a pattern of contraction and expansion in the era of incremental change that extends previous work on the technological product life cycles and helps to characterize the era of incremental change in a novel way.

This paper analyses the contribution made by evolutionary processes to the organisation of economic activity which is designed to create and sustain a competitive advantage, and to the competitiveness of companies in a dynamic and changing environment. The study looks at the ceramics industry sector in the Portuguese district of Aveiro, taking this as an example of change on the basis of empirical analyses of current organizational characteristics. These have resulted from centuries-long evolution and environmental adaptation and are related to the creation and sustention of a set of competitive advantages identified by top managers. They also relate to innovation, demand, knowledge, networks and co-evolution of the industry. The research concludes for the relationship between industrial evolution and competitiveness.

The structure and organization of industries evolves over time in response to changes in the price and availability of inputs, changes in the demand for outputs and output attributes, and changes in technology. The growing demand for traceability and assurance is a change in the demand for credence attributes. Firms that are able to organize to provide traceability and assurance at low cost will, ceteris paribus, have an advantage. In recent years, many segments of the food and agribusiness industry have become more concentrated through horizontal or vertical integration within firms or within associations of firms (cooperatives). This paper explores changes to the relative competitiveness of vertically integrated firms and horizontally and vertically aligned cooperative associations in response to demand for traceability and assurance with respect to food safety, product quality, and credence attributes. The Chilean salmon aquaculture industry is used as a contextual example.

Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author's name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pagination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award.

Purpose of the paper: Considering the renewed interest in manufacturing, the paper offers a reinterpretation of the co-evolution between the production system and work organization in the manufacturing sector. Methodology: The paper examines the evolution of the relationships between manufacturing and work organization through a reasoned review of the existing literature. Findings: The article identifies the most recent discontinuities that are driving both manufacturing and work organization towards a new paradigm shift. In addition, the article contributes to the existing literature by analyzing the current debate that reveals an interesting research agenda devoted to manufacturing and work organization. Research limits: The most visible limitation of this contribution is related to the lack of feedback on an important factor involved in the development of any industrial economic production system, the industrial policy of governments. Practical implications: The contribution raises some issues of particular relevance about the Italian lack of innovation in work organization, which requires particular attention by Human Resources Managers. Originality of the paper: The article offers a reinterpretation of the symbiotic evolution of manufacturing and work organization adopting the perspective of the noted philosopher Gianbattista Vico, by delineating different stages of this evolution, and by combining this with the existing literature in the two areas.

In this thesis, the need for the step by step transformation of industry towards sustainability is emphasized. This work involves looking at the Olive Oil Industry (OOI) from a systems perspective through the lens of Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) and applying backcasting from a principled view of socioecological sustainability. A specific project is also looked at, the Integrated Waste Management Project (IWMP), which aims at contributing to the sustainability of this particular industry. The OOI was analysed through the ABCD methodology, a tool used in planning for SSD, and measures were drawn up to guide the industry's transformation. Following this analysis, the IWMP was examined within the context and results of the OOI research. Overall, the industry is transitioning and the IWMP is a good opportunity and contributor to the evolution of the Olive Oil Industry towards sustainability. At the same time, OOI and other industries would benefit greatly from embracing a systems perspective and a strategic approach for sustainable development.

PurposeFintech is having a profound impact in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) because it offers more financial inclusion. In this paper, the authors examine the interrelationship of Fintech, base of the pyramid (BOP) entrepreneurs and social value creation, particularly in the SSA context.Design/methodology/approachThe current paper uses a qualitative research design with open-ended, in-depth interviews as the main data sources. The authors interviewed respondents from the Sierra Leone Fintech Association and four BOP entrepreneurs operating in different sectors.FindingsThe authors find that Fintech services, specifically mobile money, play a significant role in reducing uncertainty surrounding business operations. FinTech also offers growth possibilities for BOP entrepreneurs and creates social value by providing transactional security, convenience and reducing physical cash robberies. At the same time, Fintech contributes to social value by enhancing BOP entrepreneurs as well as consumer...

Additive manufacturing (AM) 1 , commonly known as 3D printing, is a cornerstone of a responsive, digitally driven production infrastructure. Though AM has been used for prototyping for decades, it is reaching an inflection point as a mainstream, serial production process. Adoption of AM is improving product development efficiency, manufacturing execution, and product performance. It enables manufacturers to envision futures in which their products are fulfilled on-demand, customized to individual user or regional preferences, and fulfilled via an interconnected network of production facilities distributed around the world. AM also leverages computationally driven design approaches for shape optimization and development of materials with performance surpassing current benchmarks. The United States is well positioned to leverage AM technologies to grow its manufacturing sector's competency and competitiveness; according to most industry metrics, the United States has established itself as the leader both in AM entrepreneurship and its utilization. Despite its strong industrial potential, the implementation of AM remains constrained by the technology's maturity and the skills of the corresponding workforce. Importantly, the fundamental economics of AM, at present, generally constrain its use cases-especially in volume-to those where the manufacturer can afford a cost premium for AM, such as for aerospace components, medical implants, and cosmetic products. This cost premium is offset by improved device performance or the identification of new modes of value

This paper analyses the contribution made by evolutionary processes to the organisation of economic activity which is designed to create and sustain a competitive advantage, and to the competitiveness of companies in a dynamic and changing environment. The study looks at the ceramics industry sector in the Portuguese district of Aveiro, taking this as an example of change on the basis of empirical analyses of current organizational characteristics. These have resulted from centuries-long evolution and environmental adaptation and are related to the creation and sustention of a set of competitive advantages identified by top managers. They also relate to innovation, demand, knowledge, networks and co-evolution of the industry. The research concludes for the relationship between industrial evolution and competitiveness.

Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author's name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pagination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award.

Additive manufacturing (AM), more popularly known as '3D printing', is believed by many commentators to be underpinning a new manufacturing revolution. AM encompasses a broad range of manufacturing process technologies that are emerging to offer the prospect of on-demand, mass personalisation, with more localised, flexible and sustainable production (Hutchings and Martin, 2012; Mortara, 2009; Despeisse and Ford, 2015). Its adoption and implementation could disrupt the organisation of manufacturing and the ways in which companies capture value. In industry, AM is the accepted term, while '3D printing' is commonly used to denote those machines used primarily by home users. The terms are often used interchangeably and both refer to "a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies" (ASTM, 2012). AM is not just a single technology. Instead there are a multitude of different technologies, each at differing levels of technological maturity, offering the option of using different materials, with different quality outputs. Among many classifications of AM, the ASTM propose seven categories depending on how the layers are created: (1) vat photopolymerisation; (2) material jetting; (3) binder jetting; (4) material extrusion; (5) powder bed fusion; (6) sheet; and (7) directed energy deposition.

This paper explores how regulatory policy and firm strategy have shaped the development of the mobile telecommunications industry across Africa to date. Our historical analysis shows that during the industry's formative years, firms had different strategies for developing African markets in a relatively lax regulatory environment, with some local firms leading the way in generating innovations for adapting to inherent market and institutional challenges as well as in expanding their operations to multiple countries across Africa. While many firms exited over time, some, including a few multinationals, reoriented their strategy from targeting high-income consumers to serving the masses, and the industry benefited from the widespread diffusion of innovations, the establishment of allied industries, and low prices of handsets. However, as the industry matured, competition became mostly price-based, leading to consolidation. Authorities responded by increasing monitoring activities, taking a more "hands-on" regulatory approach. This study demonstrates that both policy and strategy coevolved in a path-dependent way as the industry gradually transitioned from the introductory phase into the growth and maturity phases. It also provides new insight into the development of the African mobile telecommunications industry, and extends and bridges the literatures on telecommunications policy and strategy, which evolved in insolation.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine pre-entry resources and capabilities (R&Cs) of de alio and de novo entrants in an emerging industry. Then, the authors investigate how entrants modify their firm boundaries, after entering a new industry, to acquire the R&Cs deemed critical to be competitive and survive in the industry. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses the global biofuel industry as a case study. The authors use multiple sets of data, including primary data collected from semi-structured interviews with industry stakeholders and experts across major biofuel-producing countries as well as quantitative data from industry reports. Findings Firms typically deploy two successive strategies in order to survive and grow. First, they extend vertical boundaries to capitalize on their own pre-entry R&Cs. Then they move quickly to acquire new R&Cs, which are classified as critical in the value chain of the industry. A new taxonomy of pre-entry R&Cs is proposed to dis...

We investigate how value chain governance can evolve in the transport biofuel sector beyond logistics and operations optimization, drawing on cases of eighteen manufacturers in four Belt and Road countries. We find that key motivations for vertical integration include control of strategic factors such as security of supply and gaining access to the retail market, subject to inter-institutional and intra-organizational barriers. We contribute to a theory of governance mode selection by suggesting plural governance mode offers a key strategic choice under institutional constraints. In BRI countries, plural mode could be less disruptive when integrating value chains.

We study the evolution of the African mobile telecommunications industry from its effective beginning and explore the sources of ownership advantages among indigenous firms, by assembling historical qualitative and quantitative firm-level data. Our historical qualitative findings suggest that a few start-ups gained industry-specific knowledge through their pre-entry experience, directed their postentry development of capabilities toward adaptations to challenging market and operational conditions, and leveraged their adaptive capabilities to enter and compete in other African countries. Using our quantitative panel data, we show that these firms successfully internationalized across the continent. In particular, compared with other start-ups, they had higher rates of foreign entry in African countries that had relatively weaker rule of law, and greater market reach in African countries that had relatively larger low-income consumer segments. These patterns corroborate that their cap...

Despite growing consensus that different types of technological innovations emerge from different paths and have differing effects on an organization’s behavior and performance, there has been little conceptual and empirical work on how (organizational) ecological processes influence the rate of occurrence of different types of innovation, such as incremental or radical innovation, and their consequences for organizational performance. We predict that organizational scope and niche crowding increase the rate of incremental innovation, while prior experience in another industry lowers the rate of both incremental and radical innovation. Further, we argue that while innovation itself may improve an organization’s survival chances, the simultaneous occurrence of radical innovation with other organizational changes, such as a change in market position, is likely to lower the organization’s survival chances. Our results are consistent with the implications of a cascading model of organiz...

This study investigates the factors affecting Bharti Airtel's cross-border postacquisition performance in an African market. This study describes the relationships among various factors such as technical capability, affiliated firm's absorptive capacity, and organizational learning capabilities, which determine the successful

This Master thesis analyzes the commercialization pricing behavior of automotive fuels (gasoline and diesel) in the market of the Spanish region Galicia. The effect of two important station specific aspects, being location of supply and vertical integration, on prices has been studied. This is done by making use of data about station specifics, degree of vertical integration, location characteristics and local market conditions. This information was available for the majority of the gasoline stations in Galicia. By investigating the effects of location of supply, the research helps to better understand how competition between gasoline stations, located closely to each other, works. This research shows that competition in the Galician market is, similar as found by Bello and Contin (2010) for Spain, imperfect. A high amount of competitors at a close range and the presence of same branded gasoline stations create retail prices which are even higher than in the case where no competitio...

An important gap in the literature on global value chains (GVCs) and bottom-of-the-pyramid markets concerns how GVCs develop to serve frontier markets and what role multinational and local firms play in that process. This paper takes a first step in filling this gap by studying the evolution of Africa’s mobile telecommunications industry. Applying a historical analysis, we find that the emergence of GVCs for African frontier markets followed a three-step process: initially, multinational corporations (MNCs) linked host countries to the MNCs’ existing value chains; subsequently, local MNC spin-offs experimented in altering key downstream value chains to mitigate the frontier markets’ demand- and supply-side challenges, and replicated those value chains in multiple African countries; and finally, other incumbents reoriented their downstream value chains for frontier markets, aided by the development of experienced local labor markets and specialized contractors. A key implication of our findings is the need for sufficient competitive incentives and industry knowledge to stimulate firms to invest in transforming existing GVCs for frontier markets. This process is highly uncertain; however, successful GVC transformation can lead firms to expand in multiple frontier markets, thereby propelling a growth phase across an entire developing region.

Additive manufacturing (AM), more popularly known as '3D printing', is believed by many commentators to be underpinning a new manufacturing revolution. AM encompasses a broad range of manufacturing process technologies that are emerging to offer the prospect of on-demand, mass personalisation, with more localised, flexible and sustainable production (Hutchings and Martin, 2012; Mortara, 2009; Despeisse and Ford, 2015). Its adoption and implementation could disrupt the organisation of manufacturing and the ways in which companies capture value. In industry, AM is the accepted term, while '3D printing' is commonly used to denote those machines used primarily by home users. The terms are often used interchangeably and both refer to "a process of joining materials to make objects from 3D model data, usually layer upon layer, as opposed to subtractive manufacturing methodologies" (ASTM, 2012). AM is not just a single technology. Instead there are a multitude of different technologies, each at differing levels of technological maturity, offering the option of using different materials, with different quality outputs. Among many classifications of AM, the ASTM propose seven categories depending on how the layers are created: (1) vat photopolymerisation; (2) material jetting; (3) binder jetting; (4) material extrusion; (5) powder bed fusion; (6) sheet; and (7) directed energy deposition.

This discussion paper aims to set out the key challenges and opportunities emerging from distributed manufacturing (DM). We begin by describing the concept, available definitions and consider its evolution where recent production technology developments (such as additive and continuous production process technologies), digitisation together with infrastructural developments (in terms of IoT and big-data) provide new opportunities. To further explore the evolving nature of DM, the authors, each of whom are involved in specific applications of DM research, examined within a workshop environment emerging DM applications involving new production and supporting infrastructural technologies. This paper presents these generalizable findings on DM challenges and opportunities in terms of products, enabling production technologies, and the impact on the wider production and industrial system. Industry structure and location of activities are examined in terms of the democrat impact on participating network actors. The paper concludes with a discussion on the changing nature of manufacturing as a result of DM, from the traditional centralised, large scale, long lead-time forecast driven production operations, to a new DM paradigm where manufacturing is a decentralised, autonomous near end-user driven activity. A forward research agenda is proposed that considers the impact of DM on the industrial and urban landscape.

Extant organizational literature argues that straddling institutionalized categories begets an illegitimacy discount, leading organizations to reproduce established categorical boundaries. If gaining legitimacy requires compliance with this "categorical imperative," why do we frequently observe categorical straddling even in uncontested and fully institutionalized categorical structures? To address this question, we propose that de novo (i.e., newly founded) and de alio (i.e., diversifying) organizations respond differently to the categorical imperative. Specifically, de novo organizations are more likely to enter and fit in high-contrast categories than in low-contrast ones, while the opposite is true for de alio entrants. To test these hypotheses, we follow technological entry dynamics within the semiconductor industry between 1976 and 2002. Using patent information, we examine how category contrast affects which technological categories de novo and de alio organizations enter, and the performance associated with those entry events. A comprehensive set of empirical analyses lend support to our hypotheses. Besides clarifying the link between the categorical imperative and structural reproduction, this study bears implications for entrepreneurship and strategy research on entry dynamics.

Abstract: Based on the premise that organizational learning and structural inertia are both rooted in prior organizational experiences, this paper examines under what conditions adaptation or selection will take place. We find that implementing a core change generates negative repercussions for survival but this effect can be countered by leveraging relevant core competencies. But we also argue that which of the two outcomes occurs is generally beyond the control of the organization. Instead, environmental transformations render ...

Based on the premise that organizational learning and structural inertia are both rooted in prior organizational experiences, this paper examines under what conditions adaptation or selection will take place. We find that implementing a core change generates negative repercussions for survival but this effect can be countered by leveraging relevant core competencies. But we also argue that which of the two outcomes occurs is generally beyond the control of the organization. Instead, environmental transformations render what firms have learned relevant or obsolete, thereby facilitating learning-based adaptation or inertia-based selection. The direction in which organizational learning evolves is a combined function of organizational demographics and the structure of the competitive environment. We propose relevant hypotheses and test them in the analysis of data from the Italian Automobile Industry, 1896-1981. We report results of hazard rate models of failure and position change and discuss general implications.

Abstract: Based on the premise that organizational learning and structural inertia are both rooted in prior organizational experiences, this paper examines under what conditions adaptation or selection will take place. We find that implementing a core change generates negative repercussions for survival but this effect can be countered by leveraging relevant core competencies. But we also argue that which of the two outcomes occurs is generally beyond the control of the organization. Instead, environmental transformations render ...

The confluence of nanotechnology and biotechnology provides significant commercial opportunities. By identifying, classifying and tracking firms with capabilities in both biotechnology and nanotechnology over time, we analyse the emergence and evolution of the global nanobiotechnology industry. Abstract of Journal of Engineering and Technology Management paper We investigate how the confluence of technologies can lead to radical innovation, thus creating opportunities at the firm and industry levels. To do so, we conduct a detailed examination of the development of the transistor and of two nanobiotechnology drugs-Doxil ® and Zevalin ®-from an innovation management perspective. We argue that three innovation management strategies are central to the development of radical innovation from the confluence of technologies, namely: importing ideas from broad networks, creating environments which allow for deep collaboration, and technologymarket matching.

The confluence of nanotechnology and biotechnology provides significant commercial opportunities. By identifying, classifying and tracking firms with capabilities in both biotechnology and nanotechnology over time, we analyse the emergence and evolution of the global nanobiotechnology industry. Abstract of Journal of Engineering and Technology Management paper We investigate how the confluence of technologies can lead to radical innovation, thus creating opportunities at the firm and industry levels. To do so, we conduct a detailed examination of the development of the transistor and of two nanobiotechnology drugs-Doxil ® and Zevalin ®-from an innovation management perspective. We argue that three innovation management strategies are central to the development of radical innovation from the confluence of technologies, namely: importing ideas from broad networks, creating environments which allow for deep collaboration, and technologymarket matching.

Local production and use of bio-ethanol for transport in Ethiopia: Status, challenges and lessons Acknowledgements My first gratitude goes to my supervisors Dr. Kes McCormick and Professor Thomas Johansson who have provided me valuable insights and support during this work. Thank you, Kes for your comments at various stages of my work, encouragement and simplifying things to make more understandable. Thank you, Thomas, for guiding and shaping my work at the beginning. Thanks goes also to the Swedish Institute for providing the financial support that made this study possible, without which my dream would not have come true. Equally thanks goes to the IIIEE for the two years academic guidance and additional inputs to shape my future life. I am also very grateful to Hakan Rodhe, who made me to conceive this thesis work during the time of my confusion. Of course, my cordial gratitude goes to my friend and former student of IIIEE (10 th batch). Thank Girum for your support and consistent encouragement to apply the program right at the beginning, for your guidance and follow up during my study, and finally for your valuable comment on the thesis draft. Thanks also go to all the people I met during the thesis work for their invaluable contributions to my work, whom I could not name them here due to limited space. Many thanks go to my colleagues, batch 13 th. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge, culture and experience. SED group was really the best I could imagine that won the team photo competition. A special thank you go to our supervisor, Professor Thomas Lindhqvist, and the group members; Samira, Angelica and Alexander. And, of course, thank you my family: my wife, my son and my daughter-I could not manage my study with out your patient, support and love.

The confluence of nanotechnology and biotechnology provides significant commercial opportunities. By identifying, classifying and tracking firms with capabilities in both biotechnology and nanotechnology over time, we analyse the emergence and evolution of the global nanobiotechnology industry. Abstract of Journal of Engineering and Technology Management paper We investigate how the confluence of technologies can lead to radical innovation, thus creating opportunities at the firm and industry levels. To do so, we conduct a detailed examination of the development of the transistor and of two nanobiotechnology drugs-Doxil ® and Zevalin ®-from an innovation management perspective. We argue that three innovation management strategies are central to the development of radical innovation from the confluence of technologies, namely: importing ideas from broad networks, creating environments which allow for deep collaboration, and technologymarket matching.

In this research, we seek to advance the understanding of heterogeneity in entrant survival rates. We suggest that the innovative environment at the time of entry can explain the variation in likelihood of survival for entrants. We conceptualize innovative environment in terms of two dimensions: the technological regime operating in a specific industry at the time of entry, and the technology intensity in the specific industry, and argue that the coexistence of certain states of these two dimensions of the innovative environment is important in explaining differences in entrant survival rates. Further, we propose that start-up size differentially impacts the relationship between the innovative environment at the time of entry and entrant survival. Empirical tests done on a unique longitudinal dataset of 3431 firms in 33 product innovations spanning over 80 years reveal support for the contingency hypothesis. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed. The "When, Where, and How" of Entrant Survival: The Effects of Knowledge Regime, Technological Intensity and Start-Up Size on New Venture Survival Market evolution, or the process whereby population characteristics of markets and their competitive dynamics change over time, is triggered by entry of new firms that introduce innovations (Schumpeter 1934; see Chandy and Tellis 1998). Acting as agents of change, these entrepreneurial entrants catalyze market transformations through their innovative activities (Lambkin and Day 1989; Utterback and Abernathy 1975). These evolutionary processes that are set in motion by new firm entry lead to changing sources of competitive advantage (Lambkin and Day 1989; Gort and Klepper 1982). Accordingly, firms' market performances are impacted (Kotler 1984; Sha nkar, Carpenter, and Krishnamurthi 1999). However, whether an entrant has a dis-equilibrating effect on the market (Boudreaux and Holcombe 1989) depends crucially on whether it is able to overcome early year vulnerability to failure associated with liability of newness (Stinchcombe 1965). Therefore, the determinants of new venture survival are important since survival is a first order condition for whether new entrants are able to impact the market place through bringing in new knowledge and innovations. However, marketing's contribution to our understanding of new venture survival is limited (Robinson and Min 2001; Kalyanaram, Robinson, and Urban 1995). This paper proposes that the specific pattern of new venture survival can be explained as the outcome of different innovative environments, defined as the particular combination of technological opportunities and properties of the knowledge base underlying innovative advantage in an industry at the time of entry. While order of entry literature suggests that entrant performance may be entry time-variant (Robinson and Min 2001; Golder and Tellis 1993; Lilien and Yoon 1990), it has also been noted that the extent of scientific know-how in an industry

We study the evolution of the African mobile telecommunications industry from its effective beginning and explore the sources of ownership advantages among indigenous firms, by assembling historical qualitative and quantitative firm-level data. Our historical qualitative findings suggest that a few start-ups gained industry-specific knowledge through their pre-entry experience, directed their postentry development of capabilities toward adaptations to challenging market and operational conditions, and leveraged their adaptive capabilities to enter and compete in other African countries. Using our quantitative panel data, we show that these firms successfully internationalized across the continent. In particular, compared with other start-ups, they had higher rates of foreign entry in African countries that had relatively weaker rule of law, and greater market reach in African countries that had relatively larger low-income consumer segments. These patterns corroborate that their capabilities for overcoming the industry’s challenging market and operational conditions were their key ownership advantages. Through our triangulated analysis, we show that inherited industry knowledge provides a foundation for postentry capability development, and entrepreneurial leadership guides this process to create ownership advantages for regional internationalization.

Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author's name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pagination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award.

In this paper we developed a concept suggesting that initial entry conditions experienced by start-ups and diversified firms affect the behavior and fates of their products. Specifically, we predicted that in capital intensive industries, initial entry conditions confer advantages to diversifiers from related industries. As a result, these firms are likely to ship more models of products than start-ups. Products made by diversifiers are likely to have a longer market life span and exert a stronger competitive pressure than those made by start-ups. We tested these predictions on all products ever shipped in the worldwide optical disk drive industry, 1983-1999. The statistical analysis largely supported our theoretical predictions.

The currently ongoing IT-revolution is a great challenge for economists. The industry displays ever arising new technologies, unstable markets shares, long term swings and short term volatility of stock prices. Yet, to study those phenomena empirically one is constrained by a lack of data. The U.S. auto industry, for which long term time series are available, has shared a similar experience since its early development. This paper studies how long term swings and short term stock price volatility in the U.S. auto industry is related to innovative efforts and switching of market shares of firms. The early period of the life-cycle of the industry was characterized by high product innovation, high market share instability, volatile stock prices and the later period by fewer firms, process innovation, more stable market shares and less stock price volatility. In this paper we focus on the "transition" period leading from the first to the second period and study the relation of ...

This paper explores how regulatory policy and firm strategy have shaped the development of the mobile telecommunications industry across Africa to date. Our historical analysis shows that during the industry's formative years, firms had different strategies for developing African markets in a relatively lax regulatory environment, with some local firms leading the way in generating innovations for adapting to inherent market and institutional challenges as well as in expanding their operations to multiple countries across Africa. While many firms exited over time, some, including a few multinationals, reoriented their strategy from targeting high-income consumers to serving the masses, and the industry benefited from the widespread diffusion of innovations, the establishment of allied industries, and low prices of handsets. However, as the industry matured, competition became mostly price-based, leading to consolidation. Authorities responded by increasing monitoring activities, taking a more “hands-on” regulatory approach. This study demonstrates that both policy and strategy coevolved in a path-dependent way as the industry gradually transitioned from the introductory phase into the growth and maturity phases. It also provides new insight into the development of the African mobile telecommunications industry, and extends and bridges the literatures on telecommunications policy and strategy, which evolved in insolation.

We investigate how value chain governance can evolve in the transport biofuel sector beyond logistics and operations optimization, drawing on cases of eighteen manufacturers in four Belt and Road countries. We find that key motivations for vertical integration include control of strategic factors such as security of supply and gaining access to the retail market, subject to inter-institutional and intra-organizational barriers. We contribute to a theory of governance mode selection by suggesting plural governance mode offers a key strategic choice under institutional constraints. In BRI countries, plural mode could be less disruptive when integrating value chains.

Additive manufacturing (AM), more popularly known as ‘3D printing’, is believed by many commentators to be underpinning a new manufacturing revolution. AM encompasses a broad range of manufacturing process technologies that are emerging to offer the prospect of on-demand, mass personalisation, with more localised, flexible and sustainable production. Its adoption and implementation could disrupt the organisation of manufacturing and the ways in which companies capture value. This special issue presents seven papers and identifies key gaps in knowledge relating to the emergence and diffusion of additive manufacturing technologies. 46 research questions are proposed for further investigation.

This discussion paper aims to set out the key challenges and opportunities emerging from distributed manufacturing (DM). We begin by describing the concept, available definitions and consider its evolution where recent production technology developments (such as additive and continuous production process technologies), digitisation together with infrastructural developments (in terms of IoT and big data) provide new opportunities. To further explore the evolving nature of DM, the authors, each of whom are involved in specific applications of DM research, examine through an expert panel workshop environment emerging DM applications involving new production and supporting infrastructural technologies. This paper presents these generalisable findings on DM challenges and opportunities in terms of products, enabling production technologies and the impact on the wider production and industrial system. Industry structure and location of activities are examined in terms of the democratising impact on participating network actors. The paper concludes with a discussion on the changing nature of manufacturing as a result of DM, from the traditional centralised, large-scale, long lead-time forecast-driven production operations to a new DM paradigm where manufacturing is a decentralised, autonomous near end user-driven activity. A forward research agenda is proposed that considers the impact of DM on the industrial and urban landscape.