Li, Mo, Ph.D. (2012) Competition vs. collaboration in the generation and adoption of a sequence of new technology. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Although there is quite a rich literature relating to competitive innovation there is
relatively little relating to technological collaboration. However, ignoring
collaborative possibilities may result in overestimation of the importance of selfinnovation.
This thesis is therefore mainly concerned with the determinants of
collaboration in innovation, taking both a theoretical and an empirical approach.
The empirics relate to the manufacturing industry in a Chinese region. The
thesis is particularly innovative in emphasising how collaboration costs will be
shared when collaboration occurs.
We provide a game theoretic exploration of the decisions of firms on
whether to compete or collaborate in the generation and adoption of a
sequence of new technologies. Different from the models proposed by Vickers,
who concentrates upon process innovation and a two-strategy (innovation or do
nothing) set, our game theory model emphasises product innovation and either
a three-strategy set (innovation, collaboration, and do nothing), or a fourstrategy
set (innovation, collaboration, imitation and do nothing). In particular,
MATLAB programming is employed for generating the equilibrium solution for
each strategy set. We found that the relationship between imitation and
collaboration and collaboration cost is not univariate. It depends upon the
market type and various market characteristics, such as technology gap,
technology level, the product substitution index, transaction costs and the
discount rate of price sensitiveness. The results also show that the elasticity of
collaboration opportunity with respect to transaction costs in a persistent
dominance market is much greater than in an action reaction market.
By using data on manufacturing in a Chinese region from 2005 to 2007,
derived from the China Innovation Survey and the Annual Corporate Financial
Survey, we empirically explored innovation and collaboration patterns. Three
factors, innovative ability, absorptive capacity, and catching up capacity were
proposed to positively affect both innovation and collaboration. This led to six
hypotheses, which were tested using a number of econometric models
encompassing selection bias, timing, and dynamics issues. The major finding
from the empirical models suggests that innovative ability, absorptive capacity
and catching up capacity all impact significantly and positively on collaboration,
whilst innovation is positively related only to absorptive capacity. Also, we found
that collaboration cost may increase with R&D, employees‘ education, the
technology gap and collaboration cost in previous periods, but decrease with
transaction cost, patents held, the technology level and perceived price.
The thesis makes three contributions. Theoretically, our game theory
model not only extends the understanding of the impacts of collaboration
possibilities and collaboration cost in dynamic game theory, but also clarifies the
impacts of transaction costs and imitation (and thus intellectual property rights
(IPR)) on the outcome. Empirically, by introducing new data our work is the first
to investigate collaboration patterns and collaboration cost sharing strategies in
a mid-income level developing country. Last but not least, using MATLAB
animation programming to simplify the calculation process of the game theory
equilibrium may be considered as a methodological contribution.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Technological innovations -- Mathematical models, Cooperative industrial research -- Mathematical models, Manufacturing industries -- China -- Econometric models
Official Date:	April 2012
Dates:	Date Event April 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Warwick Business School
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Stoneman, Paul ; Hu, Yansong
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Extent:	307 leaves : ill., charts
Language:	eng

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