Racing behavior technological evolution in the high-end computer industry

Abstract In a thirty-year period, firms in the high-end computer industry compete for technological leadership with select subgroups of firms. A clustering technique is used to identify these subgroups of firms. In each of the three such ‘races’ that I identify, a firm's racing rivals influence the evolution of its own technology frontier. This approach complements life-cycle and other models of technological evolution. A central role is assigned to strategic interactions between firms. Different kinds of strategic interactions lead to intra-race and inter-race behavior. I demonstrate how such inter-firm interactions map into technological evolution at the industry level and suggest that the patterns seen here can help us understand technological evolution in a range of environments.

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