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，高科技公司一直是“新经济”的核心。通过对各主要光纤网络公司创新能力积累的深入比较分析，将评估股票市场角色变化的影响以及股价波动的影响。在20世纪90年代末的投机热潮中，许多收入微薄、备受推崇的初创企业能够在只向公众发行一小部分股票的情况下进行IPO，同时筹集到史无前例的现金，为未来的增长提供资金。在这些公司对高科技收购的竞争性竞标中，高股价变得重要起来，因此在决定哪些公司将对其未在内部开发的新技术实施战略控制方面发挥了重要作用。然后，为了开发和利用收购的技术，收购方必须将被收购公司的能力与自己的能力结合起来。这意味着使用基于股票的薪酬来招聘和留住关键人员，这些人大多是非执行职位，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防止员工离开公司加入初创公司。因此，公司股票在新企业和现有企业积累创新能力方面发挥了重要作用。该项目分析了利用公司股票作为收购和补偿货币对主要光网络公司创新能力积累的影响。这种对股票的使用给公司高管带来了维持高股价的压力，对这些高管投资于创新能力的战略决策有何影响？初创企业的存在和股票的高估值是否使高层管理人员倾向于从外部获得创新能力，而他们的公司可能通过内部技术开发更有效地积累了这些能力？使用股票期权作为大量管理和技术人员薪酬方案的关键组成部分，是否激励这些员工为雇用他们的公司从事组织学习？或者，它鼓励了高度个人主义的行为，关注劳动力市场的流动性？在繁荣时期使用公司股票作为收购和补偿货币，是否使这些公司比其他情况下更容易受到衰退的影响？股票在经济低迷中的角色是否发生了变化？该项目承诺为指导未来的企业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.