Summary of the article “Top Management’s attention to
discontinuous technological change: Corporate venture capital as
an alert mechanism” by Maula, Keil and Zahra (2012)
A firm’s response to technological discontinuities is shaped by how its senior managers pay
attention to and interpret technological change
Technological discontinuities = fundamental shifts from one dominant technology to
another
Prior research: top management’s attention allocation is prerequisite to effective
organizational response to technological discontinuities
This research proposes
Various types of interorganizational relationships have differing effects on top
management’s attention and that
- homophilous relationships with industry peers may negatively affect timely
attention to emerging technological discontinuities
- heterophilous relationships may guide top management’s attention towards
emerging discontinuities
Research
Sample of largest US corporations in 4 industries between 1989-2000 that faced 2
technological discontinuities: Internet and wireless technologies
- Attention based view
Venture Capitalists (VC)
Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investments = when large corporations invest in start-ups
alongside traditional VC firms
Technological change
- Incremental
- Punctuated by short revolutionary periods in the form of discontinuities
Some incumbents fail to adapt to these changes and lose their market position
Reasons why incumbents find it hard to adapt
- Different economic incentives of new entrants
- Forces of inertia (like organizational identity)
- Path dependency
- Escalation of commitment
- Irreversible commitments
- Existing organizational routines
- Cognitive barriers
- Embeddedness of incumbents within established networks
Why do senior managers in some incumbents pay attention to technological discontinuities
and others not?
Attention-based view
discontinuous technological change: Corporate venture capital as
an alert mechanism” by Maula, Keil and Zahra (2012)
A firm’s response to technological discontinuities is shaped by how its senior managers pay
attention to and interpret technological change
Technological discontinuities = fundamental shifts from one dominant technology to
another
Prior research: top management’s attention allocation is prerequisite to effective
organizational response to technological discontinuities
This research proposes
Various types of interorganizational relationships have differing effects on top
management’s attention and that
- homophilous relationships with industry peers may negatively affect timely
attention to emerging technological discontinuities
- heterophilous relationships may guide top management’s attention towards
emerging discontinuities
Research
Sample of largest US corporations in 4 industries between 1989-2000 that faced 2
technological discontinuities: Internet and wireless technologies
- Attention based view
Venture Capitalists (VC)
Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) investments = when large corporations invest in start-ups
alongside traditional VC firms
Technological change
- Incremental
- Punctuated by short revolutionary periods in the form of discontinuities
Some incumbents fail to adapt to these changes and lose their market position
Reasons why incumbents find it hard to adapt
- Different economic incentives of new entrants
- Forces of inertia (like organizational identity)
- Path dependency
- Escalation of commitment
- Irreversible commitments
- Existing organizational routines
- Cognitive barriers
- Embeddedness of incumbents within established networks
Why do senior managers in some incumbents pay attention to technological discontinuities
and others not?
Attention-based view
