Knowledge Creation Strategies and Firm Performance in Emerging Industries: An Empirical Investigation of the Automotive Airbag Industry

新兴行业的知识创造策略和企业绩效：汽车安全气囊行业的实证调查

• 批准号: 0620487
• 负责人: Sebastian Fixson
• 金额: $ 10.01万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2009-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0620487&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Knowledge; Creation; Strategies; Firm; Performance

This award is co-funded by the Studies in Policy, Science, Engineering and Technology component of the Science and Society Program and the Program on Innovation and Organizational Change. The project studies the co-evolution of knowledge capabilities and industry structure by investigating the automotive airbag industry in the U.S. Several characteristics make this industry a good example for industry emergence in the high-tech sector. First, the product is complex and knowledge intensive, and combines multiple knowledge domains (mechanical, chemical, electrical/electronic, software, and textile), and thus its evolution presents an interesting case for studying the path of knowledge building and combination. Second, the industry experienced rapid growth over a relatively short time period. After twenty years of delay due to legal maneuvers between government and the auto industry, the automotive airbag industry grew from non-existence into a multi-billion dollar industry in less than fifteen years. The project has two major objectives. First, firms' knowledge creation strategies will be documented and categorized by mapping their patenting activities from 1970-2000. To do this, a database that includes all patents filed in this industry, and all patent citations will be created. For coding purposes this patent data set will be augmented with data from archival sources. This quantitative information, particularly the citation patterns, will allow investigation of the paths of knowledge creation (its flow, additions, and combinations) over time. Second, through combining the data on knowledge creation paths with data on firm success, such as firm survival and market share, the role of knowledge creation for firm success, and ultimately for the evolution of the industry structure, will be investigated. The project will build theory by (a) describing the paths of knowledge creation in emerging high-tech industries, and (b) explaining the effect of these knowledge creation strategies on firm performance and industry structure. Considering technological, economic, strategic, and legal aspects, the project will contribute to a better understanding of the co-evolution of technological innovations and the related industry structure. The improvement of the understanding of both the role of knowledge for competitiveness in emerging industries and its path of creation will help to increase the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing firms. Research results will be presented to academic, industrial, and governmental audiences. Furthermore, the results will be integrated in a course on Technology Management that the PI teaches at the University of Michigan.

该奖项由科学和社会计划的政策研究、科学、工程和技术部分以及创新和组织变革计划共同资助。该项目通过对美国汽车安全气囊行业的调查，研究了知识能力和行业结构的共同演进。该行业的几个特点使该行业成为高科技行业崛起的一个很好的例子。首先，产品是复杂的和知识密集型的，并结合了多个知识领域(机械、化学、电气/电子、软件和纺织)，因此它的演变为研究知识构建和组合的路径提供了一个有趣的案例。其次，该行业在较短的时间内经历了快速增长。由于政府和汽车行业之间的法律操作而拖延了20年，汽车安全气囊行业在不到15年的时间里从不存在发展成为一个价值数十亿美元的产业。该项目有两个主要目标。首先，公司的知识创造战略将被记录下来，并通过绘制1970-2000年期间的专利活动图进行分类。要做到这一点，将创建一个包括该行业所有专利申请和所有专利引用的数据库。出于编码目的，该专利数据集将使用来自档案来源的数据进行扩充。这些定量信息，特别是引文模式，将允许研究随着时间的推移知识创造的路径(其流动、添加和组合)。第二，通过将知识创造路径的数据与企业成功的数据相结合，如企业生存和市场份额，将调查知识创造对企业成功的作用，并最终对行业结构的演变起到作用。该项目将通过(A)描述新兴高科技产业中知识创造的路径，以及(B)解释这些知识创造战略对企业业绩和行业结构的影响来构建理论。考虑到技术、经济、战略和法律方面的因素，该项目将有助于更好地理解技术创新和相关产业结构的共同演进。加深对知识对新兴产业竞争力的作用及其创造路径的认识，将有助于提高美国制造业企业的竞争力。研究成果将向学术界、工业界和政府观众展示。此外，这些结果将被整合到PI在密歇根大学教授的一门技术管理课程中。