Arun Kumaraswamy

TL;DR: The institutional entrepreneurship implicit in a firm's sponsorship of its technology as a common standard is beset by several challenges as mentioned in this paper, which arise from a standard's property to enabl...

TL;DR: This work discusses the assumptions that underlie path dependence, and provides the outlines of an alternative perspective which is labelled as path creation, a notion of agency that is distributed and emergent through relational processes that constitute phenomena.

Abstract: Today's industrial landscape is characterized by rapid change and systemic technologies. Rapidchange results in ever shorter product life cycles that demand continual innovation from firms.The systemic nature of technologies makes it difficult, if not impossible, for any one firm tomanufacture all components of a technological system. We propose that these challenges bemet by designing technological systems that have the potential to yield economies of substitution.Additionally, we propose that these economies be realized by adopting the network mode ofgovernance. We examine the network mode at three levels-intrafirm, interfirm, andinstitutional-to illuminate the inherent tension between cooperation and competition at eachlevel, and to explore the implications of this tension for industrial dynamics.

TL;DR: Theoretical insights on technological systems and network externalities are employed to understand Sun's open systems strategy and the changing nature of competition in network industries-industries characterized by network internalities and built around technological systems.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the network mode at three levels to illuminate the inherent tension between cooperation and competition at each level, and explore the implications of this tension for industrial dynamics.