Innovation and firm-level persistent profitability: a Schumpeterian framework

Studies of firm-level profit dynamics tend to attribute the variance in profit persistence to variability in the extent to which imitative pressures are resisted. This monopoly-based explanation of persistent profitability implicitly assumes a one-to-one correspondence between firm-level and product-level profit dynamics. Following Schumpeter, this paper begins to develop a framework for firm-level profit persistence that embraces product innovation, competitor imitation, and, more importantly, the prospect that several product innovations may be embodied within a single firm. Such an approach opens the door for an innovation-based explanation of profit persistence to accompany the monopoly-based arguments that are typically offered. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.