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This work explores which factors increase firms' propensity to enter into international markets. The study draws on the resource-based view and assesses the effect played by firms' technological capabilities and cost structures on entry. While many research papers consider those two factors to be independent one from the other, this study focuses on their interactive effect. Empirical analysis covers the whole population of Spanish pharmaceutical firms over the period 1995-2004. By using data on trademarks filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the study identifies those firms that have entered the US market with branded products. Then, the study uses a hazard model to empirically estimate which firms' resources and capabilities affect the probability of entry. Results show that firms can maximize the likelihood of entry in foreign markets by pursuing hybrid competitive strategies that combine together scope economies and cost efficiency.

This paper introduce a list of desirable efficiency properties that any a patent system should have in order to enhance innovation, trade competitiveness, employment mobility and economic growth. We briefly overview the literature on patents and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the present and recent proposals for the future of the European Union Patents System. In particular, we discuss the costinefficiencies observed in the current design of the EU Patent System based in a double structure layer divided in a central European Patent Office (EPO) and several nationalbased patent offices. This paper analyzes the likely backlashes of creating a third layer for a sub‐sample of EU countries. The paper suggests an alternative more efficient Patent System together with some policy implications.

This paper introduce a list of desirable efficiency properties that any a patent system should have in order to enhance innovation, trade competitiveness, employment mobility and economic growth. We briefly overview the literature on patents and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the present and recent proposals for the future of the European Union Patents System. In particular, we discuss the costinefficiencies observed in the current design of the EU Patent System based in a double structure layer divided in a central European Patent Office (EPO) and several nationalbased patent offices. This paper analyzes the likely backlashes of creating a third layer for a sub‐sample of EU countries. The paper suggests an alternative more efficient Patent System together with some policy implications.

An important reason why individuals join groups or communities is to satisfy their needs for identity. Firms might exploit this societal tendency to gain a competitive advantage. Using the strategic approach adopted by Kiehl’s, a U.S. cosmetic producer and retailer, as a source of inspiration and illustration, this paper develops a novel theoretical framework to investigate how firms interact with communities to access privileged customers’ information, from which they can build a product differentiation advantage. We argue that by adhering and supporting a well-defined set of values, Kiehl’s both achieves community membership and strengthens the sense of identity that its target communities provide to their members. These investments prompt reciprocal community member behaviors, which the company channels into its customer knowledge development process. Finally, this article describes how firm–community interactions can protect the differentiation advantage by turning products into symbols of the communities to which its customers belong.

An important reason why individuals join groups or communities is to satisfy their needs for identity. Firms might exploit this societal tendency to gain a competitive advantage. Using the strategic approach adopted by Kiehl’s, a U.S. cosmetic producer and retailer, as a source of inspiration and illustration, this paper develops a novel theoretical framework to investigate how firms interact with communities to access privileged customers’ information, from which they can build a product differentiation advantage. We argue that by adhering and supporting a well-defined set of values, Kiehl’s both achieves community membership and strengthens the sense of identity that its target communities provide to their members. These investments prompt reciprocal community member behaviors, which the company channels into its customer knowledge development process. Finally, this article describes how firm–community interactions can protect the differentiation advantage by turning products into symbols of the communities to which its customers belong.

In recent decades, a new social condition has emerged, in which human beings increasingly seek to strengthen their identity by belonging to communities. The role of these communities as providers of identity may offer a powerful construct for explaining and interpreting a vast array of firm activities and actions, as well as evaluating their potential for creating and sustaining competitive advantage. We develop a framework in which firms implement strategies to interact with communities. The framework provides insights that apply to various domains of the organization literature, ranging from corporate identity to supplier relationships and from human resource practices to corporate social responsibility.

Open source software (OSS) has recently emerged as a new way to organize innovation and product development in the software industry. This paper investigates the factors that explain the investment of profit-oriented firms in OSS products. Drawing on the resource-based theory of the firm, we focus on the role played by pre-OSS firm assets both upstream and downstream, in the software and the hardware dimensions, to explain the rate of product introduction in OSS. Using a self-assembled database of firms that have announced releases of OSS products during the period 1995-2003, we find that the intensity of product introduction can be explained by a strong position in software technology and downstream market presence in hardware. Firms with consolidated market presence in proprietary software and strong technological competences in hardware are more reluctant to shift to the new paradigm. The evidence is stronger for operating systems than for applications. The fear of cannibalization, the crucial role of absorptive capacity, and complementarities between hardware and software are plausible explanations behind our findings.

This paper employs an original dataset for 146 US metropolitan areas to test some propositions that characterize two different models of organizing firms and industries: the managerial firm, epitomized by the work of Alfred Chandler, and the entrepreneurial system, recently highlighted by many authors. We discuss the reasons why, compared to the entrepreneurial systems, the Chandlerian world entails a lower spread of managerial salaries, greater product diversification, and a greater degree of products exploitation vs exploration. If there are knowledge spillovers, the entrepreneurial model produces higher expected managerial salaries. By providing systematic evidence about their characteristics, our study contributes to our understanding of the nature, the comparative advantages, and the potential division of labor between the two models.

This paper investigates the relationships between firm organization attributes, namely a structure á la Chandler, and their inward looking or exploitation attitude in R&D and innovation. We argue that because of sunk costs and learning processes an inward looking behavior is a consequence of increases in firm size. However, it is also produced by an organizational model based on hierarchical managerial decisions, typical of the Chandlerian firms, that is not directly related to size. We find that the US States populated by larger firms show a higher share of patent self-citations normalized by their share of world patents. Even after controlling for firm size, a proxy for the extent of firm divisionalization in the States exhibits a significant effect on patent self-citations normalized by patent shares. This supports our point that the inward looking behavior of the Chandlerian firms is not just a consequence of size, but also of the Chandlerian organizational model. Among other things, this suggests that exploration, which leads to the opening of new innovation trajectories, requires not only small firms, but also different organizational setups and decision processes.

This paper seeks to explore the drivers of startups' survival in turbulent industries, characterized by high rates of entry and exit, fragmented market shares, and a rapid pace of product innovation. Specifically, the paper aims to underscore the role played by post-entry product strategies, along with their interaction, beyond that of pre-entry conditions. Based on a sample of 270 startups that entered the Security Software Industry from 1989 till 1998, we find evidence that surviving entities are those that more aggressively adopt versioning and product portfolio strategies. Interesting enough, strategic learning seems to play a major role: Focusing on one of the two product strategies commands a higher survival probability than adopting a mixed strategy.