This paper develops a framework to analyze how choices are made when R&D competition occurs between two firms, and the aggressiveness-time tradeoffs have to be resolved in multiple stages. At issue is the way in which resources are used at each stage, i.e. are aggressiveness problems undertaken and solved (slowly) or are quick solutions adopted in an effort to get the product to market faster? We first analyze why differently positioned firms choose different targets. We focus on this translation between ex ante asymmetries between firms and ex post asymmetries in the equilibrium outcomes. Our second focus is on understanding the implications of the tradeoff between the level of aggressiveness and time spent on each stage in a multi-stage process.
