The pre‐commercialization emergence of the combination of product features in the charge‐coupled device image sensor

• Author: Curba M. Lampert,Raja Roy,MB Sarkar
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/sej.1333
• Published date: 01 December 2019
• Date: 01 December 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The pre-commercialization emergence of the

combination of product features in the charge-

coupled device image sensor

Raja Roy

1

| Curba M. Lampert

2

| MB Sarkar

3

1

Martin Tuchman School of Management,

New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark,

New Jersey

2

Department of Management and

International Business, College of Business,

Florida International University, Miami,

Florida

3

H.F. “Gerry”Lenfest Professor in

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

(posthumously), Temple University,

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Correspondence

Raja Roy, Martin Tuchman School of

Management, New Jersey Institute of

Technology, Newark, NJ.

Email: rroy@njit.edu

Abstract

Research Summary:Despite recent investigations that expand

our understanding of the evolution of a new industry and the

role of its early actors, an exploration of the critical function of

firm experimentation in the pre-commercialization phase has

been lacking in the literature. This study focuses on the pre-

commercialization phase of CCD image sensors and uncovers

the emergence of the combination of product features—

chosen through systematic experimentations—that define the

post-commercialization dominant design.

Managerial Summary:We examine how pre-commercializa-

tion experimentation generates new knowledge that transfers

from one early actor to another enabling them to sequentially

mitigate the product performance trade-offs associated with

the combination of product features that define the eventual

dominant design. Our findings describe how firm experimenta-

tion helps the emergence of product features in the pre-

commercialization phase of CCD image sensors, which shapes

the post-commercialization dominant design to emerge.

KEYWORDS

dominant design, firm experimentation, incubation of new

technology, pre-commercialization phase, product features

1|INTRODUCTION

Strategy and innovation scholars (Anderson & Tushman, 1990; Gort & Klepper, 1982) have explored technological

changes that result in creative destruction (Schumpeter, 1942). Concentrating on the instance of the first

Received: 17 August 2017 Revised: 20 March 2019 Accepted: 30 May 2019 Published on: 12 August 2019

DOI: 10.1002/sej.1333

© 2019 Strategic Management Society

448 wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/sej Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. 2019;13:448–477.

commercialization of a product, scholars have examined how firm heterogeneity affects entry, exit, competitive

dynamics, and performance as the new technology evolves (Helfat & Lieberman, 2002; Klepper & Simons, 2000;

Sarkar, Echambadi, Agarwal, & Sen, 2006). However, by focusing solely on the post-commercialization phase, these

studies mask the extensive variation in technological choices and firm experimentation (Rosenberg, 1969, 1992) pre-

ceding commercialization.

Recently, Moeen (2013), Agarwal, Moeen, and Shah (2017), and Moeen and Agarwal (2017) have focused much

needed attention on the critical pre-commercialization phase of a new technology's evolution. This phase covers the

period from the time a firm begins “developing the first concept”to the time the firm develops a “working model

[that] can be sold to a customer”(Golder, Shacham, & Mitra, 2009, p. 167) and extends almost three decades in some

industries (Agarwal & Bayus, 2002). Building on these insights, Moeen (2013, p.17) explored firms' value capture in

the pre-commercialization phase of the agricultural biotech industry, and Agarwal et al. (2017, p. 288) highlighted

the role of “triggers”that led to the inception of a new industry.

Despite these recent investigations expanding our understanding of a new industry's evolution and highlighting

the role of early “actors”(Agarwal et al., 2017, p. 288), an exploration of the critical function of firm

experimentation—which acts as the harbinger of “major advances in knowledge”(Rosenberg, 1969, p. 22; see also

Rosenberg, 1992)—in the pre-commercialization phase is relatively overlooked in the literature. Specifically,

researchers are yet to combine the wisdom received from the innovation literature that has focused on the post-

commercialization phase with the recent advances in our understanding of the pre-commercialization phase, to

investigate how experimentation by early actors during the pre-commercialization phase paves the way for the

emergence of the dominant design—the “combination of features,”that accounts for “50 percent of new product

sales”in the post-commercialization phase (Anderson & Tushman, 1990, pp. 616–620). This motivates us to seek an

answer to our research question—“How is the post-commercialization dominant design shaped by knowledge gener-

ation and transfer during the pre-commercialization phase of a new technology?”

The answer to our research question is critical for scholars, managers, and entrepreneurs for several reasons.

First, the emergence of the dominant design is an integral part of a new technology's evolution (Abernathy &

Utterback, 1978; Clark, 1985; Klepper, 1997). Extant literature on dominant design (see, e.g., Klepper, 2002) has,

however, similar to the broader innovation literature, largely concentrated on the post-commercialization phase of a

new industry.

1

Recent research supplements Klepper's (1997, 2002) observations and suggests that the pre-

commercialization phase involves “actors”experimenting to solve “technological problems to transform an innovative

idea into a viable commercial product”(Agarwal et al., 2017, p. 288).

2

The insights from Moeen and Agarwal (2017)

and Agarwal et al. (2017), when combined with the wisdom received from Rosenberg's (1969) and Klepper's (1997)

seminal research, raises the intriguing possibility that knowledge generated through such experimentations in the

pre-commercialization phase may shape the dominant design in the post-commercialization phase—thereby motivat-

ing our research question.

Second, exploring the mechanisms that lead to the emergence of the combination of product features in the pre-

commercialization phase (which shapes the post-commercialization dominant design), when neither user feedback

(Abernathy & Utterback, 1978) nor scale economies (Klepper, 1997) are likely to affect its emergence, can uncover

yet overlooked new mechanisms through which dominant designs emerge. Such an understanding can benefit both

scholars and practitioners interested in the value creation and appropriation in the early stages of an industry's evo-

lution. Finally, an exploration of the answers to our research question is critical if researchers and practitioners are to

“fully [comprehend] interinnovation [sic] relationships”in the pre-commercialization phase of a technology's evolu-

tion (Golder et al., 2009, p. 167) that create opportunities for both entrepreneurial startups and existing manufac-

turers, and shape the post-commercialization oligopolistic industry structure (Moeen & Agarwal, 2017).

In our pursuit to seek an answer to our research question, we use the evolution of the charge-coupled device

(CCD) image sensor

3

from its conceptualization in 1969 to its commercialization in the early 1990s as the context of

our study. We build on Rosenberg (1969) and Mowery and Rosenberg (1981) and pursue a historical approach, in

which we rely on archival data, interviews, as well as published and unpublished accounts by industry insiders for

ROY ET AL.449