Momentous developments in the global economy over the last two decades have dramatically increased the availability of industrial investment sites and lowered the cost of relocating core activities to new countries. But how should these developments be exploited for competitive advantage? Firms...

This paper analyzes how U.S., Japanese, and European HDD firms responded to technological shifts in the hard disk industry from 1973 through 1996. Leading incumbent U.S. HDD firms were frequently forced out of the market. Leading Japanese incumbent firms in the same industry, however, were not...