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This research aims to address how a firm can mobilise resources through interfirm relationships to bridge technological discontinuities.

This research adopts a processual single case study to undertake an empirical investigation from the perspective of a technology-bundled net as the research boundary.

This research produces three key findings. First, mobilising resources across firm boundaries to create an adequate bundling of product, process and marketing technologies is the cornerstone of bridging technological discontinuities. Second, resource mobilisation between firms in the transition to a new technological trajectory is affected by the sediments accrued in the existing (old) trajectory. Third, technological discontinuities may be competence-enhancing, and their radical effects may originate from non-technical causes.

This paper contributes to the research of radical innovation from an interaction and networks perspective and also by focusing on resource mobilisation taking place in the transition from an existing technological trajectory to a new one. In particular, this paper takes into account the relatedness of resources and the influences of past interaction underpinning an old trajectory in the bridging of technological discontinuities.

This paper aims to formalize long-term trajectories of human civilization as a scientific and ethical field of study. The long-term trajectory of human civilization can be defined as the path that human civilization takes during the entire future time period in which human civilization could continue to exist.

This paper focuses on four types of trajectories: status quo trajectories, in which human civilization persists in a state broadly similar to its current state into the distant future; catastrophe trajectories, in which one or more events cause significant harm to human civilization; technological transformation trajectories, in which radical technological breakthroughs put human civilization on a fundamentally different course; and astronomical trajectories, in which human civilization expands beyond its home planet and into the accessible portions of the cosmos.

Status quo trajectories appear unlikely to persist into the distant future, especially in light of long-term astronomical processes. Several catastrophe, technological transformation and astronomical trajectories appear possible.

Some current actions may be able to affect the long-term trajectory. Whether these actions should be pursued depends on a mix of empirical and ethical factors. For some ethical frameworks, these actions may be especially important to pursue.

Understanding when entrants might have an advantage over an industry’s incumbent firms in developing and adopting new technologies is a question which several scholars have explained in terms of technological capabilities or organizational dynamics. This paper proposes that the value network—the context within which a firm competes and solves customers’ problems—is an important factor affecting whether incumbent or entrant firms will most successfully innovate. In a study of technology development in the disk drive industry, the authors found that incumbents led the industry in developing and adopting new technologies of every sort identified by earlier scholars—at component and architectural levels; competency-enhancing and competency-destroying; incremental and radical—as long as the technology addressed customers’ needs within the value network in which the incumbents competed. Entrants led in developing and adopting technologies which addressed user needs in different, emerging value networks. It is in these innovations, which disrupted established trajectories of technological progress in established markets, that attackers proved to have an advantage. The rate of improvement in product performance which technologists provide may exceed the rate of improvement demanded in established markets. This mismatch between trajectories enables firms entering emerging value networks subsequently to attack the industry’s established markets as well.

The evolution of technology has become the mainstream of the current technological innovation era. Technological change is organized in its unique pattern and a new approach that takes place in a systematic and selective manner. Such change is generally molded with the amalgamation of various factors, namely, economic, social or scientific and technological. This paper aims to focus on identifying technological trajectories in a technological ecosystem with the case of m-payment technology.

This study constructs a patent citation network for mobile payment service technology through patent citation data and identifies the main evolution process using the main path analysis of the network. The scope of this study focuses on key innovation using social network analysis and patent citation network, validated using the case of a mobile payment system and analyzing its technological trajectory.

Analyzing technology evolution provides a greater insight of the overall technology landscape to the researcher and practitioner. Analyzing the m-payment technology landscape gives three main categories of m-payment systems: the mobile financial transaction system), the payee mobile device payment selection system and e-wallet services.

The novelty of this research lies in the process of identifying technological evolution using social network and patent citation network analysis. The case of m-payment technology ecosystem is studied quantitatively which is not explored by previous researchers. This research provides a way to develop the main path technology of innovative products or services to identify technology evolution using the case of m-payment landscape.

This study aims to provide a comprehensive explanation of the linkage between premium segments and product innovation. While previous literature confirms that product innovation triggers premium segment emergence, and vice versa, there is no satisfactory explanation regarding the underlying mechanisms that drive the mutual shaping of premium segments and product innovation. This paper attempts to address this gap in literature.

This study employs a cognitive model of technology trajectories and empirically examines the Japanese rice cooker market using a mixed-methods approach. The methods used consist of content analyses of newspaper articles and press releases and case analyses of manufacturers' new product development.

Content analyses show the emergence of a premium segment within the Japanese rice cooker market as well as a simultaneous change in technology trajectories. Case analyses subsequently reveal the mechanisms that link the premium segment emergence and technology trajectory changes. The analyses also explore this linkage in detail; market actors' technological frames and interpretation processes mediate the mutual shaping of the premium segment and product innovations.

This study presents quantitative evidence indicating the emergence of a premium segment and changes in technology trajectories. It provides a qualitative explanation for the linkage between these two phenomena, which may serve as a viable foundation for future research in premium strategy.

Explores the idea of trajectories of innovation in software development. Patterns of Innovation are analysed within social and institutional contexts, and within the context of changes in the ways computer technology is used. Three main trajectories of innvation in software development are discussed: technical change (e.g. languages, techniques, tools, methods); organizational and managerial change; and commodification (the substitution of packaged products for custom development). Sub‐trajectories are also described. Concludes that the scope and heterogeneity of software development activity has supported the formation of a number of different and competing trajectories which lead to quite different conclusions about the future of software development.

This study aims to propose a methodology by integrating three approaches, namely, internal core technology, external knowledge flow and industrial technology development to help companies improve their decision-making quality for technology planning and enhance their research and development (R&D) portfolio efficiency.

The primary focus of this study is thin-film solar technology and patent data is retrieved from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database. This study presents a methodology based on the proposed integrated analysis method, constructed with patent indicators, centrality analysis of social networks and main path analysis.

The results of this study can be itemized as – the core technological competency: companies involved in two specific technology fields have lower strength in R&D portfolio than leading companies with single-core technology. Knowledge flow: most companies in a network are knowledge producers/absorbers and technological development: diverse source and sink nodes were identified in the global main path during 1997-2003, 2004-2010 and 2011-2017.

Latecomer companies can emulate leaders’ innovation and enhance their technological competence to seek niche technology. Using the global main path, companies monitor outdated technologies that can be replaced by new technologies and aid to plan R&D strategy and implement appropriate strategic decisions avoiding path dependency.

The knowledge accumulation process helps in identifying the change of position and the role of companies; understanding the trend of industrial technology knowledge helps companies to develop new technology and direct strategic decisions. The novelty of this research lies in the integrated approach of three methods aiding industries to find their internal core technical competencies and identify the external position in the competitive market.

The extant “supply‐side” frameworks of industry evolution fail to predict the evolutionary patterns in industries based on systemic technologies. This paper aims to describe the complex demand environment in industries based on systemic technologies and to explain how the continuously evolving demand structure influences the choice and level of firm investments in the above context.

The paper identifies a conceptual gap in the “technology‐centric” literature on industry evolution by conducting a detailed interpretive survey of the literature that focuses on the demand‐side determinants of firm‐ and industry‐level technological processes underlying industry evolution, and co‐evolution of the technological system underlying an industry and the consumer applications based on the same.

The paper provides a set of empirically verifiable mechanisms to explain competing firms' choice and level of investment under conditions of technological and demand uncertainty in industries based on systemic technologies. On one hand, firms' investments influence the evolution of both the technological system(s) and their constituent components that underlie such industries and, on the other, firms' investments influence the consumption of the array of consumer applications that are generated in these industries.

The theoretical explanation provided herein not only enhances the understanding of the role of demand‐side factors as determinants of rate and direction of technological advances but also lies central to the understanding of the evolution of industries based on systemic technologies. More specifically, the paper explains how the interaction between continuously evolving demand structure in the downstream market(s) for consumer applications and the technological components comprising the technological system influences competing firms' choice and level of investments.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the strategy for latecomers in large developing countries under globalization. The relationship between innovation and learning is deeply studied.

The paper formulates an in‐depth case study on the digital video player industry through consideration of government documents, reports, and research papers; intensive interviews; and questionnaire study.

The firms in developing countries might be able to innovate before they can match the firms in advanced countries in technological capabilities, and innovation is the most effective way of learning. The firms can achieve competitive advantage owing to the effect of the national value network, the nature of architectural technology, and the relationships between them in product development. The national market should be deliberately taken as a strategic asset for the technological learning and latecomers should learn how to exploit the advantage of globalization.

The paper tries to understand how firms in developing countries conduct learning by innovating to build their competitive advantages.

In the ongoing Industry 4.0 era, the internet of things (IoT) has become a global race in the current information technology climate. However, little is understood about the pattern of the global competitive arena or its players’ set up strategy. This paper aims to attempt to compare the cross-country development of the IoT industry. In particular, from the lens of industrial policies, this paper highlights how China, as a latecomer, gains momentum to emerge victorious as a leader in this global race.

Based on five dimensions, namely, foundation, trajectory, characteristic, application and social impacts, this paper presents the evolution of the IoT industry in the USA, European Union, Japan, South Korea and China. From the lens of windows of opportunities, this paper analyzes how China seized the opportunity with the emerging technology, thereby, enabling it to create a competitive advantage.

This paper finds that China’s IoT industry takes a distinct trajectory, where scientific institutions, enterprises and governmental policies collaborate in unison, during which the first phase was when scientific research institutions introduced the conceptual new technology from developed countries. This technological foresight allowed for the identification and realization of critical technologies, strategic fields and technological trends. The second phase was the continuous dissatisfaction of capabilities of critical technologies, which creates disruptions that significantly altered the environment of technological competition.

This paper provides a comprehensive and comparative review of IoT industries in a global context, with the critical and influential role of the windows of opportunities on those enterprises lagging behind the technological wave.