Yonsei University Graduate School of Business

BIZ6034-01기술전략세미나(배성주교수님)

Market for Technology and

their Implication for Corporate Strategy

Ashish Arora, Andrea Fosfuri and Alfonso Gambardella (2001)

OM석사1학기김동환 (2012321109)

Summary

According to resource-based theory, the source of sustained superior performance resource is based on valuable, rare and imperfectly mobile. Therefore, firms can earn sustainable competitive advantage through having access to assets which competitors can not access.

If firms can trade technical assets each other, what will happened with RBV perspective ?

In this paper, the author suggests that technology exchange has been rapidly growing like various forms of R&D Joint Venture, Partnership, Licensing and cross-licensing agreements. And also such market of technology became more common.

Firms are not only technology user (‘buy’technology), but also technology supplier (‘sell’technology). Especially Chemical, High-Tech Industries (ex. SW, Semiconductor, Biotechnology) is very active in technology trade.

Technology is defined here as intellectual property / patent, intangible things (like software program or design), or things embodied in a products and technical service is included in technology as well. But, in this article, market for technology is defined as market for intellectual property which is able to license referred in US Department of Justice.

In sum, this article analyses how market for strategy affects on firms and corporate strategy. Authors of this article conclude that market for strategy increase the strategy space.

Firms can choose to license in the technology instead of developing it in-house or they can choose to license out their technology instead of investing in the downstream assets needed to manufacture and commercialize the goods. This implies that more proactive management of intellectual property, greaterattention to external monitoring of technologies, and organizational changes to supporttechnology licensing, joint-ventures and acquisition of external technology.

Contribution

This article helps readers to better understand what markets for technology is and why it is significant for firms’corporate strategies in terms of large, small firms and industry-wides.Especially, since the issue on whether self-exploitation or licensing is made is very important to firms, they will get good advises from this article.

Critique

I think that patenting strategy has been common in the business world and firms may be aware of its benefits and disadvantages finally. For its advantages, even if patenting strategy can helps firms to protect their intellectual properties, competitors or entrants have some potential opportunities easier to search for their interested informationon technology through public patenting system sometimes. As this article was prepared in early of 2000, this point may not be considered.

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