PHDBA279C

Technology Dynamics And Firm Strategy

PHDBA 279C - Technology Dynamics And Firm Strategy is a class offered to doctoral students at UC Berkeley, and is a field requirement for PhDs in BPP at the Haas School of Business. This page details the course as it was taught by David Mowery and Ernesto Dal Bo, Rui deFigueiredo, and Steve Tadelis in the Fall of 2009. The course was broken into two parts: "The Economics Of Technological Innovation" and "Topics in Firm Strategy".

Part 1 - The Economics Of Technological Innovation

The Economics Of Technological Innovation was taught by David Mowery (email and webpage). The class and paper list (note that class zero was an introduction with no readings) was as follows:

1.) Invention of the art of invention: when, why, and so what?

• Schumpeter, J.A. (xxxx), "The Theory of Economic Development", Chaps. 2, 4, 6.

• Schumpeter, J.A. (1950), "Capitalism, Socialism & Democracy", pp. 81-163. pdf

• Mowery, D.C. (2009), "Plus ca change: Industrial R&D in the ‘Third Industrial Revolution", forthcoming, Industrial and Corporate Change. pdf

• Lamoreaux, N. and K. Sokoloff (2005), "Decline of the Independent Inventor: A Schumpeterian Story", NBER working paper #11654. pdf

• Langlois, R.N. (2003), "The vanishing hand: The changing dynamics of industrial capitalism", Industrial & Corporate Change. pdf

2.) The economics of science, R&D, and innovation

• Nelson, R.R. (1959), "The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research", Journal of Political Economy 67, 297-306. pdf

• Arrow, K.J. (1958), "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Innovation" in idem., Essays in the Theory of Risk Bearing. pdf

• Kline, S.J. and N. Rosenberg (1986), "An Overview of Innovation" in Ralph Landau and Nathan Rosenberg, eds., The Positive Sum Strategy: Harnessing Technology for Economic Growth, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 275-305.

• Cohen, W.M. and D.A. Levinthal (1990), "Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation," Administrative Sciences Quarterly 35, 569-596. pdf

• Teece, D.J. (1986), "Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing, and public policy," Research Policy. pdf

• Gittelman, M. and B. Kogut (2003), "Does good science lead to valuable knowledge? Biotechnology firms and the evolutionary logic of citation patterns", Management Science. pdf

• Teeece, D.J. (2006), "Reflections on ‘profiting from innovation", Research Policy. (Optional Reading) pdf

3.) Measuring the inputs, outputs, and economic effects of innovation

• Mansfield, E. (1992), "Academic Research and Industrial Innovation," Research Policy 20, 1-12. pdf

• Griliches, Z. (1995), "R&D and Productivity: Econometric Results and Measurement Issues", in P. Stoneman, ed., Handbook of the Economics of Innovation and Technological Change, Blackwell.

• Smith, K. (2005), "Measuring Innovation," in J. Fagerberg, D. Mowery and R. Nelson, eds., Handbook of Innovation, Oxford UP.

• Moser, P. (2003), "How Do Patent Laws Influence Innovation? Evidence from 19th-Century World Fairs," NBER Working Paper #9909. pdf

• Triplett, J.A. (1996), "High-Tech Industry Productivity and Hedonic Price Indices," OECD Proceedings. pdf

• Macher, J., D.C. Mowery, and A. DeMinin (2008), "Globalization of innovation in the semiconductor industry", in J. Macher and D.C. Mowery, eds., Innovation in Global Industries, National Academies Press.

• Griliches, Z. (1992) "The Search for R&D Spillovers," NBER working paper #3768, July. (Optional Reading) pdf

• Griliches, Z. (1990), "Patent Statistics as Economic Indicators: A Survey," J. Economic Literature. (Optional Reading) pdf

• Pavitt, K.L.R. and P. Patel (1995), "Patterns of Technological Activity: Their Measurement and Interpretation", in P. Stoneman, ed., Handbook of the Economics of Innovation and Technological Change, Blackwell. (Optional Reading)

4.) Intellectual Property Strategy and Policy

• Hall, B.H. (2004), "Exploring the Patent Explosion", NBER working paper #10605. pdf

• Ziedonis, R.H. (2004), "Don’t fence me in: Fragmented markets for technology and the patent acquisition strategies of firms", Management Science. pdf

• Merges, R. P. (1999), "As Many as Six Impossible Patents before Breakfast: Property Rights for Business Concepts and Patent System Reform", Berkeley Technology Law Journal. pdf

• Lerner, J. (1995), "Patenting in the Shadow of Competitors," J. Law & Economics. pdf

• Agarwal, R., M. Ganco, and R. Ziedonis (2008), "Reputations for toughness in patent enforcement: Implications for knowledge spillovers via inventor mobility," unpublished MS. pdf

• Lerner, J. and J. Tirole (2002), "Some simple economics of open source," Journal of Industrial Economics. (Optional Reading) pdf

5.) US Universities, Patents and Licensing

• Mowery D., & A. Ziedonis, (2001), "Numbers, Quality, & Entry: How Has the Bayh-Dole Act Affected U.S. University Patenting and Licensing?", in Innovation Policy and the Economy, NBER. pdf

• Walsh J., M. Cho, and W. Cohen (2007), "Where excludability matters: material vs. intellectual property in academic biomedical research", Research Policy. pdf

• Agrawal A., and R. Henderson (2002), "Putting Patents in Context: Exploring Knowledge Transfer from MIT", Management Science.

• Murray F., and S. Stern (2005), "Do formal intellectual property rights hinder the free flow of scientific knowledge? An empirical test of the anti-commons hypothesis", NBER working paper #11465. pdf

• Thursby J., A. Fuller, & M. Thursby (2007), "US Faculty Patenting Inside and Outside the University", NBER working paper #13256. pdf

• Ding W., and E. Choi (2008), "Divergent Paths or Stepping Stones: A Comparison of Scientists Advising and Founding Activities", unpublished MS. pdf

• Zucker L., M. Darby, and J. Armstrong (1998), "Geographically Localized Knowledge: Spillovers or Markets?", Economic Inquiry. pdf

6.) Competence Construction, Destruction, and Incumbent Displacement

• Abernathy W. & J. Utterback (1978), "Patterns of Industrial Innovation", Technology Review.

• Henderson R.M. & K.B. Clark (1990), "Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms", Administrative Science Quarterly. pdf

• Anderson P. and M. Tushman (1990), "Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change", ASQ. pdf

• Cockburn I., R. Henderson, and S. Stern (2000), "Untangling the origins of competitive advantage", Strategic Management Journal. pdf

• Tripsas M. (1997), "Unraveling the process of creative destruction: Complementary assets and incumbent survival in the typesetter industry", Strategic Management Journal. pdf

7.) Entrant origin, strategy, and performance in technology-intensive industries

• Klepper S. (2008), "Silicon Valley - A chip off the old Detroit bloc", forthcoming in D. Audretsch and R. Strom, eds., Entrepreneurship, Growth and Public Policy, Cambridge University Press. pdf

• Gompers, P., J. Lerner, and D. Sharfstein (2003), "Entrepreneurial Spawning: Public Corporations and the Genesis of New Ventures, 1986-1999," NBER working paper #9816. pdf

• Chatterji, A. (2009), "Spawned with a silver spoon? Entrepreneurial performance and innovation in the medical device industry," forthcoming, SMJ. pdf

• Stuart, T.E. and O. Sorenson (2003), "Liquidity events and the geographic distribution of entrepreneurial activity," ASQ.pdf

Possible additional paper(s):

• Pisano, Gary P. (1990), "The R&D Boundaries of the Firm: An Empirical Analysis", Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 35, No. 1, Special Issue: Technology, Organizations, and Innovation (Mar., 1990), pp. 153-176 pdf

Part 2 - Firm Strategy

Part 2 was taught by Ernesto Dal Bo (email and website), Rui de Figueiredo (email and website), and Steve Tadelis (email and website). There was a Final Exam. The class and paper list was as follows:

Dal Bó - Firm Stragegy

1.) Spatial competition (Lecture 1-1 Class Slides Lecture 1-2 Class Slides)

• Hotelling, H. (1929), "Stability in competition", Economic Journal 39, 41-57. pdf

• Salop (1979), "Monopolistic competition with outside goods", Bell Journal of Economics 10, 141-156. pdf

2.) Monopolistic competition and horizontal differentiation (Lecture 2 Class Slides)

• Dixit, A. and J. Stiglitz (1977), "Monopolistic competition and optimum product diversity", American Economic Review 67, 297-308. pdf

• Spence, M. (1976), "Product selection, fixed costs and monopolistic competition", Review of Economic Studies 43, 217-235. (Optional Reading) pdf

3.) Vertical differentiation (Lecture 3 Class Slides)

• Shaked, A. and J. Sutton (1982), "Relaxing price competition through product differentiation", Review of Economic Studies 49, 3-13. pdf

• Gabszewicz, J. and J-F Thisse (1979), "Price competition, quality, and income disparities", Journal of Economic Theory 20, 340-359. (Optional Reading) pdf

Steve Tadelis - Boundaries of the Firm and Incentives

1.) Boundaries of the Firm and Incentives

• Holmstrom, Bengt and Paul Milgrom (1991), "Multi-Task Principal-Agent Analyses: Linear Contracts, Asset Ownership and Job Design", Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Vol. 7, pp. 24-52. pdf

• Grossman, Sanford J. and Oliver D. Hart (1986), "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical Integration", Journal of Political Economy, vol.94, pp. 691-719. pdf

• Gibbons, Robert (2005), "Four formal(izable) theories of the firm?", Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, vol. 58, pp.200-245. pdf

2.) Boundaries of the Firm and Incentives (cont.)

• Baker, George and Thomas Hubbard (2004), "Contractibility and Asset Ownership: On-Board Computers and Governance in U.S. Trucking", Quarterly Journal of Economics, 119, pp.1443-79. pdf

• Woodruff, Christopher (2002), "Non-contractible Investment and Vertical Integration in the Mexican Footwear Industry", International Journal of Industrial Organization, 20, pp. 1197-1224. pdf

de Figueiredo - Corporate Diversification and Dynamic Capabilities

1.) Corporate diversification

• Montgomery, C. (1994), "Corporate diversification", Journal of Economic Perspectives, 8, pp.163-178. pdf

• Teece, D. (1980), "Economies of scope, and the scope of the enterprise", Journal of Economic Behavior and organization, 1, pp.223-247. pdf

• Teece, D. (1982), "Towards an economic theory of the multiproduct firm", Journal of Economic Behavior and organization, 3, pp.39-63. pdf

• Campa, J. M. and S. Kedia (2002), "Explaining the diversification discount", Journal of Finance, 57, pp.1731-1762. pdf

• Montgomery, C. B. Wernerfelt (1988), "Diversification, Ricardian rents and Tobin’s q", Rand Journal of Economics, 19, pp.623-632. pdf

• Villalonga, B. (2004), "Diversification discount or premium? New evidence from the business information tracking series", Journal of Finance, 59, pp.479-506. pdf

2.) Dynamic capabilities

• Teece, D., G. Pisano and A. Shuen (1997), "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management", Strategic Management Journal, 18, pp.509-533. pdf

• Eisenhardt, K., and J. Martin (2000), "Dynamic capabilities: what are they?", Strategic Management Journal, 21, pp.1105-1121. pdf

• Winter, S. (2003), "Understanding dynamic capabilities", Strategic Management Journal, 24, pp.991-995. pdf

• Cockburn, I. M., R. Henderson, and S. Stern (2000), "Untangling the origins of competitive advantage", Strategic Management Journal, 21, pp.1123-1145. pdf

• McElheran, K. S. (2007), "Productivity leadership and strategic investments in innovation: the adoption of e-business capabilities", mimeo, pdf