Are Technology-Intensive Industries More Dynamically Competitive? No and Yes

A growing body of research in management and related public policy fields concludes that the 1980s and 1990s saw greater dynamic competition throughout technology−intensive (“TI”) industries, with wide−spread, steady increase in TI industry and business performance instability as principal consequences. We test for evidence of these consequences in a large sample of US businesses operating from 1978−1997 in 31 industries with high average RDexpenditure−to−sales ratios. In the full sample, we find no evidence of sustained increase in TI industry and business performance instability, nor any evidence of significant cross−sectional differences in performance instability between TI and non−TI industry businesses over these 20 years. For a small segment of very high−performing businesses from TI industries, however, we do uncover evidence of both significantly declining performance stability as well as evidence of significant cross−sectional differences in performance...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2010
• Where: ORGSCI
• Authors: Paul M. Vaaler, Gerry McNamara
• Keywords: Dynamic Competition, ORGSCI 2010, Performance Instability, TI Industry