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Coordinating and competing in ecosystems: How organizational forms shape new technology investments
Author(s) -
Kapoor Rahul,
Lee Joon Mahn
Publication year - 2013
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/smj.2010
Subject(s) - incentive , industrial organization , context (archaeology) , business , bureaucracy , business ecosystem , competitive advantage , complementary assets , marketing , affect (linguistics) , economics , microeconomics , knowledge management , computer science , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , politics , political science , law , biology
We consider firms in the context of their business ecosystems and explore how differences in the ways in which firms are organized with respect to complementary activities affect their decision to invest in new technologies. We argue that, in addition to creating differences in incentives and bureaucratic costs, firm‐complementor organizational form plays an important role in the firm's ability to coordinate accompanying changes in complementary activities so as to shape the benefits from investing early in the new technology. We test our predictions in the U.S. healthcare industry from 1995–2006. The study makes a strong case for viewing firms' competitive strategies in the context of their business ecosystems and for the existence of an important link between firms' coordination choices and their strategic investments. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.