Technological frames: making sense of information technology in organizations
ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) - Special issue on social science perspectives on IS
Adaptation on rugged landscapes
Management Science
Technology integration: making critical choices in a dynamic world
Technology integration: making critical choices in a dynamic world
Localization of Knowledge and the Mobility of Engineers in Regional Networks
Management Science
The Soul of a New Machine
Design Rules: The Power of Modularity Volume 1
Design Rules: The Power of Modularity Volume 1
Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search
Management Science
Overcoming Local Search Through Alliances and Mobility
Management Science
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This paper examines the impact of internal competition that occurs when new technology challenges the technology in a firm's existing products. New-technology development projects are traditionally judged by market success---and most fail. If we examine their impact on existing-technology product development, a different interpretation arises. Drawing on the literature on the influence of social factors on interfirm search and adoption of new technologies, this study argues that similar processes occur intrafirm. Evidence from a field study on new-technology product development in high-technology firms shows that internal competition influences existing-technology product development groups to integrate the new technology into the next generation of their own products. The reason is twofold. First, these groups shift their search toward the new technology and allocate resources to gain a deeper understanding of it. Second, access to internal information and the mobility of workers across project boundaries benefit the existing-technology groups. The findings provide a model of innovation that illustrates an endogenous process of internal competition. This often political and contentious process can have a strong influence on technology adoption and integration.