The Stock Market and Innovative Capability in the Optical Networking Industry

这个项目分析了股票市场对高科技公司创新能力的影响，这些公司是“新经济”的核心。通过对各大光网络公司创新能力积累的深入对比分析，评估股票市场角色变化的影响以及股价波动的影响。在上世纪90年代末的投机热潮中，许多被大肆吹捧、收入却很少的初创企业能够通过ipo，只向公众发行一小部分股票，同时筹集到前所未有的现金，为未来的增长提供资金。在这些公司之间的高科技收购竞标中，高股价变得很重要，因此在决定哪些公司将对非内部开发的新技术实施战略控制方面发挥了重要作用。其次，为了开发和利用所收购的技术，收购方必须将被收购公司的能力与自己的能力相结合。这意味着使用股票薪酬来招聘和留住关键人员，这些人员大多是非执行职位，否则他们可能会去为竞争对手工作。在老牌公司，股票期权套餐被用来阻止员工跳槽到初创公司。因此，公司股票在新企业和持续经营企业积累创新能力方面发挥了重要作用。本项目分析使用公司股票作为收购和补偿货币对主要光网络公司积累创新能力的影响。这种对股票的使用给公司高管带来了维持高股价的压力，如何影响这些高管投资创新能力的战略决策？创业公司的存在和股票的高估值是否使高层管理者倾向于从外部获取创新能力，而他们的公司本可以通过内部技术开发更有效地积累这些能力？作为大量管理人员和技术人员薪酬方案的关键组成部分，股票期权的使用是否激励了这些员工参与雇佣他们的公司的组织学习？还是它鼓励了高度个人主义的行为，关注劳动力市场的流动性？在繁荣时期将公司股票用作收购和薪酬的货币，是否使这些公司比其他情况下更容易受到衰退的影响？在经济低迷时期，股票的角色发生了变化吗？该项目有望为指导企业未来的增长战略提供有用的答案。

This project analyzes the impact of the stock market on the innovative capabilities of high-technology companies that have been central to the "new economy." Through in-depth comparative analyses of the accumulation of innovative capabilities at various major optical networking companies, the impacts of the changing roles of the stock market as well as the impact of volatility in stock prices will be evaluated. In the speculative boom of the late '90s, many highly touted start-ups with little revenue were able to do IPOs with only a small portion of their stock being issued to the public while raising unprecedented amounts of cash that could fund future growth. A high stock price became important in the competitive bidding among these companies for high-technology acquisitions, and hence played an important role in determining which companies would exercise strategic control over new technologies that they did not develop in-house. Then, to develop and utilize the acquired technologies, the acquirer had to integrate the capabilities of the acquired companies with its own capabilities. This meant using a stock-based compensation for recruiting and retaining key personnel, mostly in non-executive positions, who might otherwise have gone to work for competitors. In established companies, stock option packages were used to keep personnel from leaving to join start ups. Corporate stock thus came to play an important ole in the accumulation of innovative capabilities by both new ventures and going concerns. This project analyzes the impact of the use of corporate stock as an acquisition and compensation currency on the accumulation of innovative capabilities by major optical networking firms. How did such use of stock, entailing as it did pressure on corporate executives to maintain high stock prices, affect the strategic decisions of these executives to invest in innovative capabilities? Did the existence of start-ups and high stock valuations bias top managers toward acquiring innovative capabilities externally when their companies may have accumulated these capabilities more effectively through internal development of the technologies? Did the use of stock options as a key component of compensation packages for large numbers of managerial and technical personnel motivate these employees to engage in organizational learning for the companies that employed them? Or did it encourage highly individualistic behavior, with concern for mobility within the labor market? Has the use of corporate stock as an acquisition and compensation currency in the boom made these companies more vulnerable than otherwise to the slump? Has the role of stock changed in the downturn? This project promises to provide useful answers to guide corporate growth strategies in the future.