L'inertie de la firme dominante face a l'innovation de produit : une explication par un phenomene d'information trompeuse en provenance du marche. l'exemple des logiciels d'application pour micro-ordinateurs

Technological inertia of leading firms explained by misleading market signals. The case of the microcomputer application software industry

• Auteur / Autrice : Frédéric Dromby
• Direction : Jean-Pierre Detrie
• Type : Thèse de doctorat
• Discipline(s) : Gestion
• Date : Soutenance en 1999
• Etablissement(s) : Jouy-en Josas, HEC

Mots clés

Mots clés contrôlés

Créativité en technologie

Entreprises multinationales

Grandes entreprises

Mots clés libres

Grandes entreprises

Entreprises multinationales

Creativite en technologie

Résumé

Si l'innovation est devenue une source determinante d'avantage concurrentiel, elle l'est dans la mesure ou, en dehors de la firme qui innove, les concurrents manifestent souvent une inertie face a l'innovation qui remet en cause leur position sur le marche. Les causes de ce retard de reaction sont multiples, et une revue de la litterature sur le sujet met notamment en evidence les lacunes du savoir actuel sur les causes environnementales de l'inertie des firmes face a l'innovation. Notre recherche porte sur l'elucidation du phenomene d'inertie d'une firme face a l'innovation de produit, cause par une information trompeuse en provenance de l'environnement et empechant cette firme de contrer rapidement l'offensive d'un concurrent qui introduit le produit innovant sur le marche. Une etude historique effectuee sur l'industrie des logiciels applicatifs pour micro, ordinateurs de 1977 a 1997 montre le caractere systematique de l'inertie des firmes leaders de marche a un moment donne face a un produit innovant, ce qui aboutit a des changements repetes de leadership jusqu'a la domination actuelle de microsoft. Deux etudes de cas portant sur deux firmes editrices de logiciels, lotus et ashton-tate, permettent de modeliser la sequence inertielle suivie par ces deux entreprises jusqu'a la perte de leur leadership de marche et leur rachat. Deux series d'hypotheses derivees de ce modele sont alors testees selon un protocole experimental.

The dissertation is divided into three parts. In part i, we review the literature about corporate inertia, which appears to be a cornerstone of an emerging strategic theory of the firm. Three different types of inertia are identified: organizational, competitive and technological inertia. We identify and articulate the many causes of inertia in a 5*2 matrix which thrives on previous but partial contributions on the causes of organizational and competitive inertia. We then propose to study inertial phenomena in an industry where they are frequent. We choose to study the microcomputer software industry, which seems to highly influenced by technological intertia of leading firms. In part ii, we use an inductive and historical approach to describe the evolution of microcomputer software from an inertial point of view. Particular attention is devoted to methodological issues. To establish solid construct validity, three different classes of data were used in this study: archival documentation, a questionnaire and interviews. The study covers the whole history of microcomputer sofware, from its humble origins in the early seventies to the recent advent of what we call '' distributed microcomputing ''. The most interesting results concern microcomputer application software. Three forces appear to have shaped competition in this industry: technological innovation at a considerable pace, standardization, and technological inertia of leading firms. The combination of these three forces leads to the identification of four product-generations with systematic changes in market leadership, resulting in the present domination of the microsoft corporation. Concluding remarks are made about some possible explanations of such a phenomenon, and the significance of 'first-mover advantages' in information technology (it) industries. In part iii, we use a game-theoretic approach based on information incompleteness to explain why in industries with sudden and radical changes, leading competitors have difficulties to understand the impact of an innovative technology, and thus often loose their technological and market edge. The game is designed to reflect the conditions in the microcomputer application software industry, where changes in market leadership have been the rule each time a new product generation, based on a new design, has appeared. Three propositions are made concerning