Differentiated technological regimes and changing industrial organisation: Theory and evidence from the upstream oil and gas industry

The upstream oil and gas industry has experienced two different technological regimes since it became international in the 1920s. Its incentives to innovate remained weak during the first fifty years, whereas from the 1970s onward new technical challenges forced the industry into a technological revolution, further amplified by fierce competitive pressure on hydrocarbon prices since the oil price collapse in 1986. Performing this technological acceleration has entailed deep structural changes in the relationship between international oil and gas companies in terms of an increasing propensity to cooperate, more balanced partnerships and a more selective choice of partners. These empirical results are supported by two complementary theories of inter-firm cooperation: a static one sketched in terms of resources allocation for the technological tranquillity period, and a dynamic one that deals with the creation of resources for the technological revolution period.