Two complementary studies will focus on generational technology change at both the industry and organization levels of analysis. One will analyze an important, common, but neglected kind of innovation, where several generations of product technology co-exist in a market. The hypotheses to be tested will illuminate how multiple generations affect emerging firms and patterns of competition over time and help to explain why such markets are heterogeneous. The tests use hazard-rate estimation and other event-history methods and inclusive archival data for US software products and the firms that developed them over 10 years.

A complementary study of the European software market by INSEAD, the global institute for business administration, funded separately, will enable joint comparative analysis, but it ignores the ways that individual firms adapt to generational technological change. Firm-level adaptation is important to the theory of organizational innovation and to improving managers’ capabilities to cope with complex, turbulent markets. Therefore, the second, complementary study will look at change inside a firm, covering the same products and time period, and using case studies to describe in-depth the evolution of organizational forms and strategies. The cases highlight the co-evolution of technology, the marketing of organizational units, product-line scope, firm boundaries, and dynamic capabilities and were developed with the funding and cooperation of the Microsoft Corporation.

Both studies are linked to evolutionary theory, technology change, and organizational theory literatures. Both are preceded by a technical analysis of software product-technology and its evolution. Together, these complementary projects will produce more complete prescriptions for managers and researchers and make strong contributions to theory on the management of innovation.

Stanley Mandel
Biotechnology Research: Innovation, Funding, and Ethics Symposium
Awarded $3,000 for the period 8/15/06 to 9/29/06
Source: North Carolina Biotechnology Center (NCBC)

The symposium, hosted by Wake Forest, brought together students, faculty, and researchers from Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem State University, Salem College, Forsyth Technical Community College, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to discuss ways to implement and fund basic research in an applied environment, driven by commercial interests as well as the ethical implications of doing so. Speakers included Steve Burrill, CEO, Burrill and Company; Arthur Caplan, Director, Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania; and Cliff Leaf, Executive Editor, Fortune Magazine.