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The nature, sources, and consequences of firm differences in the early history of the semiconductor industry
Author(s) -
Holbrook Daniel,
Cohen Wesley M.,
Hounshell David A.,
Klepper Steven
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/1097-0266(200010/11)21:10/11<1017::aid-smj131>3.0.co;2-g
Subject(s) - semiconductor industry , diversity (politics) , industrial organization , business , marketing , engineering , manufacturing engineering , sociology , anthropology
Four entrants into the early semiconductor industry—Sprague Electric, Motorola, Shockley Semiconductor Laboratories, and Fairchild Semiconductor—displayed remarkably different performance and behavior. Case studies of the firms demonstrate that the key differences stemmed from the firms' technological goals and activities and their abilities to integrate R&D and manufacturing. These differences can in turn be related to the firms' origins and their different conditions upon entry into the semiconductor industry, which had lasting effects due to constraints on change. While the cases offer limited prescriptions for management, they underscore the importance of technological diversity for an industry's rate of technical advance and, in turn, public policies that support such diversity. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.