This article uses the music industry to demonstrate a model of technological change that explains the sources and timing of technological discontinuities and dominant designs. The process by which firms translate customer needs into products can be represented in terms of an interaction between...

This paper uses the semiconductor industry to describe a model of technological change that sheds light on the mechanism by which many technological discontinuities occur. The model combines two arguments: (1) incremental improvements in a system's components impact on the performance and design...

This paper uses a typology of industries to summarize and contrast the challenges involved with industry formation and to examine why specific industries were formed in some countries before other ones. The formation of most new industries depends on the introduction of products that provide a...

This paper empirically examines 13 technologies in which significant cost and performance improvements occurred even while no commercial production occurred. Since the literature emphasizes cost reductions through increases in cumulative production, this paper explores cost and performance...