doi 10.1287/mnsc.1070.0712

papers published so far. The aim of the Series is to bring together research in progress from across the School for publication to a wider audience and to facilitate discussion. Papers are reviewed by senior faculty before acceptance into the Series. The agreement of the authors should be sought before referring to its contents in other publications. This paper is available electronically on the School of Management website:

Technological diversification at the level of the firm, i.e. the expansion of a firm’s technology base into a wide range of technology fields, is found to be a prevailing phenomenon in all three major industrialized regions: US, Europe and Japan, prompting the term multi-technology corporation. Whereas previous studies have provided insights into the composition of technology portfolios of multi-technology firms, little is known about the link between technological diversification and firms ’ technological performance. Against a backdrop of the technology and innovation management literature, this article investigates the relationship between technological diversification and technological performance, taking into account the moderating role of technological coherence in firms ’ technology portfolios. Hereby, technological coherence is defined as the degree to which technologies in a technology portfolio are technologically related. In order to measure the technological coherence of portfolios, a measure of technological relatedness of technology fields is constructed based on patent citation patterns found in 450,000 EPO patent grants. Two hypotheses are presented in this article: (1) Technological diversification has an inverted U-shaped relationship with technological performance; and (2) Technological coherence moderates the relationship between technological diversification and technological performance positively. These hypotheses are tested empirically using a panel dataset (1995-2003) on patent

The long-standing argument that focused operations outperform others stands in contrast to theory and evidence supporting a broader scope for organizations. The literature on related diversification at the level of the firm provides some reconciliation of these conflicting observations by suggesting that multi-unit firms with a portfolio of related businesses outperform both single-unit firms and multi-unit firms composed of unrelated businesses. Explanations for this relationship between focus and firm performance have largely centered on economies of scope achieved by sharing common resources, such as advertising or production capacity. We consider whether there are similar benefits to relatedness at an operating unit level and whether such benefits stem from spillovers between operating activities. Using data from the hospital industry, we first examine the relationship between focus and performance in cardiovascular care. Then, distinguishing between direct and complementary spillovers, we examine: (1) the extent to which a hospital’s specialization in areas related to cardiovascular care directly impacts performance in cardiovascular care (direct spillovers) and (2) whether the marginal benefit of a hospital’s focus in cardiovascular care depends on the degree to which the hospital “co-specializes” in related areas (complementary spillovers). We find evidence of complementarities in specialization between cardiovascular care and related service areas.

est la revue officielle de l’AIMS

Abstract not found

Abstract not found

We use the language of variation, selection and retention to create a uniform way of modeling and comparing different change journeys. We identify the genealogical and ecological processes that underlie four engines that drive renewal. This language allows us to trace how initiatives are formed, subsequently selected or rejected and how they subsequently unfold into new units or change existing units. From this we can categorize and analyze journeys that can be more or less suitable in different environments.

Number of pages 38 Email address corresponding author Address

We document the process of strategic renewal of organizations through niche pioneering and new product development in a population of firms. Our main finding is that market pioneering capabilities routinized through product customization efforts lead to continued survival of firms in industries composed of niches. In addition, such capabilities shield firms operating in older technological trajectories from exit and help firms in newer technological trajectories expand. Our study, based on an unusually rich panel of the census of laser firms with self-reported measures of market pioneering capabilities, bridges the gap between inductive and large-scale studies of firms on the balance between strategies of leverage and change in high velocity markets.