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Trends and Patterns in Interfirm R&D Networks in the Global Computer Industry: An Analysis of Major Developments, 1970–1999

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 December 2011

Myriam Cloodt ,
John Hagedoorn  and
Nadine Roijakkers
Myriam Cloodt
Affiliation:
MYRIAM CLOODT and NADINE ROIJAKKERS are assistant professors in the Department of Organization Science and Marketing and the Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Faculty of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands.
John Hagedoorn
Affiliation:
JOHN HAGEDOORN is full professor in the Department of Organization and Strategy and the Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
Nadine Roijakkers
Affiliation:
MYRIAM CLOODT and NADINE ROIJAKKERS are assistant professors in the Department of Organization Science and Marketing and the Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Faculty of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands.
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Extract

In the early 1970s, a few computer companies began to form partnerships with other firms in the international computer industry for the purpose of sharing research and development (R&D) resources. This trend did not take hold in a meaningful way until the beginning of the 1980s. Our study focuses on this particular sector because it represents a major industry in which interfirm R&D partnering occurs.

Type
Research Note
Information
Business History Review , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , Winter 2006 , pp. 725 - 746
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 2006

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31 This part of our analysis is based on quantitative network analysis and network visualization graphs. The material is available, on request, from John Hagedoorn.

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81 Unlike other companies in our company listing, Sequent Computer Systems is a smaller firm with fewer than 1,500 employees worldwide. By exploiting its unique parallel computer system (the coupling of several conventional microprocessors, i.e., Intel 80386, within a single mainframe design), the company assumed a leading position within the computer network during this period. Trew, Arthur and Wilson, Greg, Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems (Berlin, 1991CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

82 As suggested by one of the referees, another reason that Apple made so many R&D partnerships during this period was probably because it was in a state of chaos and was desperately seeking new products.

83 Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics and the Evolution of Firms.”

84 Chandler, , “The United States: Engines of Economic Growth in the Capital-intensive and Knowledge-intensive Industries,” in Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, eds. Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., Amatori, Franco, and Hikino, Takashi (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), 63–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Inventing the Electronic Century.

85 Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics.”

86 Hagedoorn, “Understanding the Rationale of Strategic Technology Partnering.”