IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ecinnt/v15y2006i6p591-603.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The organizational evolution of innovative activity in the US semiconductor industry: Technological specialization and diversification

Author

Listed:
  • Norio Tokumaru

Abstract

This article analyzes the organizational evolution of innovative activity in the contemporary high-tech industry. It has been argued that by showing illuminating examples and proposing theoretical explanations, the innovation process has been fragmented and distributed among several organizations. In other words, 'division of innovative labor' emerges. However, one of the problems of this argument lies in its lack of systematic empirical analysis. Using the United States Patent and Trademark Office patent database, this article analyzes the organization of innovative activity in the US semiconductor industry. It is shown that 'technological specialization' has not occurred in this industry as a whole. In addition, it is also shown that there are two distinct modes of development of technology, namely, 'specialized development of technology' and 'diversified development of technology', in which the share of the latter has been steadily increasing. These results imply that contrary to the earlier conventional arguments, division of labor is not a common phenomenon in the production of technological knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Norio Tokumaru, 2006. "The organizational evolution of innovative activity in the US semiconductor industry: Technological specialization and diversification," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(6), pages 591-603.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ecinnt:v:15:y:2006:i:6:p:591-603
    DOI: 10.1080/10438590500222709
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10438590500222709
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/10438590500222709?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gambardella, Alfonso & Torrisi, Salvatore, 1998. "Does technological convergence imply convergence in markets? Evidence from the electronics industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(5), pages 445-463, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Marco Corsino & Giuseppe Espa & Rocco Micciolo, 2008. "R&D, Firm Size, and Product Innovation Dynamics," ROCK Working Papers 045, Department of Computer and Management Sciences, University of Trento, Italy, revised 12 Jun 2008.
    2. Gilberto SERAVALLI, 2011. "Conflict, Contract, Leadership and Innovation: An Interdisciplinary View," Journal of Knowledge Management, Economics and Information Technology, ScientificPapers.org, vol. 1(6), pages 1-48, October.

    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. Thomas Bolli & Martin Woerter, 2013. "Technological Diversification and Innovation Performance," KOF Working papers 13-336, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    2. D'Este, Pablo, 2005. "How do firms' knowledge bases affect intra-industry heterogeneity?: An analysis of the Spanish pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 33-45, February.
    3. Seongkyoon Jeong & Jong-Chan Kim & Jae Young Choi, 2015. "Technology convergence: What developmental stage are we in?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 841-871, September.
    4. Lorenz, Steffi, 2015. "Diversität und Verbundenheit der unternehmerischen Wissensbasis: Ein neuartiger Messansatz mit Indikatoren aus Innovationsprojekten," Discussion Papers on Strategy and Innovation 15-01, Philipps-University Marburg, Department of Technology and Innovation Management (TIM).
    5. Dejing Kong & Jianzhong Yang & Lingfeng Li, 2020. "Early identification of technological convergence in numerical control machine tool: a deep learning approach," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(3), pages 1983-2009, December.
    6. Sick, Nathalie & Preschitschek, Nina & Leker, Jens & Bröring, Stefanie, 2019. "A new framework to assess industry convergence in high technology environments," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 84, pages 48-58.
    7. Rui Baptista & Murat Karaöz & João Correia Leitão, 2020. "Diversification by young, small firms: the role of pre-entry resources and entry mistakes," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 103-122, June.
    8. Sanghoon Lee & Wonjoon Kim, 2017. "The knowledge network dynamics in a mobile ecosystem: a patent citation analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(2), pages 717-742, May.
    9. Pantic-Dragisic, Svjetlana & Söderlund, Jonas, 2020. "Swift transition and knowledge cycling: Key capabilities for successful technical and engineering consulting?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    10. Lorenzo Napolitano & Evangelos Evangelou & Emanuele Pugliese & Paolo Zeppini & Graham Room, 2017. "Technology networks: the autocatalytic origins of innovation," Papers 1708.03511, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2018.
    11. Gambardella, Alfonso & Giuri, Paola & Luzzi, Alessandra, 2007. "The market for patents in Europe," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1163-1183, October.
    12. Nesta, Lionel, 2008. "Knowledge and productivity in the world's largest manufacturing corporations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(3-4), pages 886-902, September.
    13. Rajneesh Narula & Andrea Martínez-Noya, 2014. "International R&D Alliances by Firms: Origins and Development," John H Dunning Centre for International Business Discussion Papers jhd-dp2014-06, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    14. Yaya Li & Yongli Li & Yulin Zhao & Fang Wang, 2014. "Which factor dominates the industry evolution? A synergy analysis based on China's ICT industry," Papers 1403.4305, arXiv.org.
    15. Choi, Mincheol & Lee, Chang-Yang, 2021. "Technological diversification and R&D productivity: The moderating effects of knowledge spillovers and core-technology competence," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    16. Husted, Kenneth, 1999. "Between Autonomy and Control: The role of industrial researchers’ decision-making," Working Papers 11/1999, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Management, Politics & Philosophy.
    17. Rajat Khanna & Isin Guler, 2022. "Degree assortativity in collaboration networks and invention performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(7), pages 1402-1430, July.
    18. Wang, Q. & von Tunzelmann, N., 2000. "Complexity and the functions of the firm: breadth and depth," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 805-818, August.
    19. Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Dong, Xiucheng, 2023. "Does industrial convergence mitigate CO2 emissions in China? A quasi-natural experiment on “Triple Play” Reform," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    20. Park, Mingyu & Geum, Youngjung, 2022. "Two-stage technology opportunity discovery for firm-level decision making: GCN-based link-prediction approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).

    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:taf:ecinnt:v:15:y:2006:i:6:p:591-603. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/GEIN20 .

    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.