IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i11p6734-d828885.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Incumbent vs. New Firms’ Entry into an Innovative Niche Market: Electric Motorcycles in Italy, 2010–2021

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Garavaglia

    (DEMS (Department of Economics, Management and Statistics), University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
    ICRIOS (Invernizzi Center for Research on Innovation, Organization, Strategy and Entrepreneurship), Bocconi University, 20136 Milan, Italy
    LICOS (Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance), KU Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium)

  • Claudia Sartirana

    (DEMS (Department of Economics, Management and Statistics), University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126 Milan, Italy
    SAS Institute S.r.l., 20143 Milan, Italy)

Abstract

The recent advent of electric motorcycles represents an eco-innovation that guarantees environmental sustainability and opens up market opportunities for firms. In this paper, we analyse firms’ entry into the motorcycle industry in Italy. The role of incumbent firms in the presence of new innovative niches is ambiguous. On the one hand, incumbents may display inertial behaviours, while on the other hand, they can exploit their experience and dynamic capabilities to promptly catch opportunities and enter the new niche. Based on an original dataset, we develop an empirical investigation of the role of incumbent vs. new firms in the electric motorcycle niche. We contribute to the literature by showing that new firms have so far revealed more vivid dynamics while incumbents seem to stay at the window, thus supporting the idea of the existence of inertia among incumbent firms in this industry. However, among the incumbents that have entered the new market niche, we show that the largest and those with experience in the production of scooters with 0–50 cc engines are the most likely to enter the new niche market.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Garavaglia & Claudia Sartirana, 2022. "Incumbent vs. New Firms’ Entry into an Innovative Niche Market: Electric Motorcycles in Italy, 2010–2021," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-20, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6734-:d:828885
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6734/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/11/6734/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christensen, Clayton M. & Rosenbloom, Richard S., 1995. "Explaining the attacker's advantage: Technological paradigms, organizational dynamics, and the value network," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 233-257, March.
    2. Marion Debruyne & David J. Reibstein, 2005. "Competitor See, Competitor Do: Incumbent Entry in New Market Niches," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 55-66, December.
    3. David J. Teece & Gary Pisano & Amy Shuen, 1997. "Dynamic capabilities and strategic management," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(7), pages 509-533, August.
    4. Kathleen M. Eisenhardt & Jeffrey A. Martin, 2000. "Dynamic capabilities: what are they?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(10‐11), pages 1105-1121, October.
    5. Bohnsack, René & Pinkse, Jonatan & Kolk, Ans, 2014. "Business models for sustainable technologies: Exploring business model evolution in the case of electric vehicles," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 284-300.
    6. Steven Klepper & Kenneth L. Simons, 2000. "The Making of an Oligopoly: Firm Survival and Technological Change in the Evolution of the U.S. Tire Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 108(4), pages 728-760, August.
    7. Klepper, Steven & Simons, Kenneth L, 1997. "Technological Extinctions of Industrial Firms: An Inquiry into Their Nature and Causes," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(2), pages 379-460, March.
    8. Andrew A. King & Christopher L. Tucci, 2002. "Incumbent Entry into New Market Niches: The Role of Experience and Managerial Choice in the Creation of Dynamic Capabilities," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 171-186, February.
    9. Klepper, Steven, 1996. "Entry, Exit, Growth, and Innovation over the Product Life Cycle," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(3), pages 562-583, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gang, KwangWook, 2018. "The impact of pre-entry experiences on entry decisions and firm survival," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 249-258.
    2. Giovanni. Gavetti & Daniel A. Levinthal, 2004. "50th Anniversay Article: The Strategy Field from the Perspective of Management Science: Divergent Strands and Possible Integration," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(10), pages 1309-1318, October.
    3. April M. Franco & MB Sarkar & Rajshree Agarwal & Raj Echambadi, 2009. "Swift and Smart: The Moderating Effects of Technological Capabilities on the Market Pioneering-Firm Survival Relationship," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(11), pages 1842-1860, November.
    4. Ansari, Shahzad (Shaz) & Krop, Pieter, 2012. "Incumbent performance in the face of a radical innovation: Towards a framework for incumbent challenger dynamics," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(8), pages 1357-1374.
    5. Lee, Chang-Yang, 2010. "A theory of firm growth: Learning capability, knowledge threshold, and patterns of growth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 278-289, March.
    6. Anil K. Gupta & Paul E. Tesluk & M. Susan Taylor, 2007. "Innovation At and Across Multiple Levels of Analysis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(6), pages 885-897, December.
    7. Rajshree Agarwal & Barry L. Bayus, 2002. "The Market Evolution and Sales Takeoff of Product Innovations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(8), pages 1024-1041, August.
    8. Moren Lévesque & Maria Minniti & Dean Shepherd, 2009. "Entrepreneurs’ Decisions on Timing of Entry: Learning from Participation and from the Experiences of Others," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(2), pages 547-570, March.
    9. Hana Kim & Eungdo Kim, 2018. "How an Open Innovation Strategy for Commercialization Affects the Firm Performance of Korean Healthcare IT SMEs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-14, July.
    10. Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Raimund Bleischwitz, 2020. "Business models for environmental sustainability: Contemporary shortcomings and some perspectives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3352-3369, December.
    11. Murmann, Johann Peter & Frenken, Koen, 2006. "Toward a systematic framework for research on dominant designs, technological innovations, and industrial change," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(7), pages 925-952, September.
    12. Lalit Manral, 2015. "The demand-side dynamics of entrant heterogeneity," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 401-445, April.
    13. Bhattarai, Charan Raj & Kwong, Caleb C.Y. & Tasavori, Misagh, 2019. "Market orientation, market disruptiveness capability and social enterprise performance: An empirical study from the United Kingdom," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 47-60.
    14. Lin, Yini & Wu, Lei-Yu, 2014. "Exploring the role of dynamic capabilities in firm performance under the resource-based view framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 407-413.
    15. Giovanni Gavetti, 2012. "PERSPECTIVE—Toward a Behavioral Theory of Strategy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 267-285, February.
    16. Goumagias, Nikolaos & Fernandes, Kiran Jude & Nucciarelli, Alberto & Li, Feng, 2022. "How to overcome path dependency through resource reconfiguration," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 78-91.
    17. Andrea Bonaccorsi & Paola Giuri, 2000. "Industry Life Cycle and the Evolution of an Industry Network," LEM Papers Series 2000/04, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    18. Schubert, Torben & Baier, Elisabeth & Rammer, Christian, 2016. "Technological capabilities, technological dynamism and innovation offshoring," ZEW Discussion Papers 16-044, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    19. Lu Qiu & Xiaowen Jie & Yanan Wang & Minjuan Zhao, 2020. "Green product innovation, green dynamic capability, and competitive advantage: Evidence from Chinese manufacturing enterprises," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(1), pages 146-165, January.
    20. Alfredo De Massis & Josip Kotlar & Mike Wright & Franz W. Kellermanns, 2018. "Sector-Based Entrepreneurial Capabilities and the Promise of Sector Studies in Entrepreneurship," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 42(1), pages 3-23, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:11:p:6734-:d:828885. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.