Incumbent Returns to Digital Technologies : The Role of Productive and Dynamic Capabilities Complements

The literature has long emphasized that ICT returns are boosted by ICT complements. especially for disruptive and transformational technologies, such as digital technologies. We estimate returns associated with a broad family of digital technologies, and zoom at two types of complements: productive elements, (here: digital human skills), as emphasized in the economic literature, as well as a set of dynamic capabilities put forward by the strategic management literature. We find that large rents may acrrue thanks to product innovations, and when combined with both productive complementarities and transformative dynamic capabilities. The results arevisible in several generic industries