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Digital Capital and Superstar Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Prasanna Tambe
  • Lorin Hitt
  • Daniel Rock
  • Erik Brynjolfsson

Abstract

General purpose technologies like information technology typically require complementary firm-specific investments to create value. These complementary investments produce a form of capital, which is typically intangible and which we call digital capital. We create an extended firm-level panel on IT labor investments (1990-2016) using data from LinkedIn. We then apply Hall’s Quantity Revelation Theorem to compute both prices and quantities of digital capital over recent decades. We find that 1) digital capital prices vary significantly over time, peaking around the dot-com boom in 2000, 2) significant digital capital quantities have accumulated since the 1990s, with digital capital accounting for at least 25% of firms’ assets by the end of our panel, 3) that digital capital has disproportionately accumulated in a small subset of “superstar” firms and its concentration is much greater than the concentration of other assets, and 4) that digital capital accumulation predicts firm-level productivity about three years in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • Prasanna Tambe & Lorin Hitt & Daniel Rock & Erik Brynjolfsson, 2020. "Digital Capital and Superstar Firms," NBER Working Papers 28285, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:28285
    Note: AP EFG LS PR
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Kristina McElheran & J. Frank Li & Erik Brynjolfsson & Zachary Kroff & Emin Dinlersoz & Lucia Foster & Nikolas Zolas, 2024. "AI adoption in America: Who, what, and where," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 375-415, March.
    2. Czarnitzki, Dirk & Fernández, Gastón P. & Rammer, Christian, 2023. "Artificial intelligence and firm-level productivity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 188-205.
    3. Matthias Niggli & Christian Rutzer, 2023. "Digital technologies, technological improvement rates, and innovations “Made in Switzerland”," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 159(1), pages 1-31, December.
    4. Pauline Affeldt & Tomaso Duso & Klaus Gugler & Joanna Piechucka, 2021. "Market Concentration in Europe: Evidence from Antitrust Markets," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1930, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    5. Cristiano Antonelli & Gianluca Orsatti & Guido Pialli, 2023. "The effects of the limited exhaustibility of knowledge on firm size and the direction of technological change," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 48(4), pages 1359-1385, August.
    6. Casi, Elisa & Lisowsky, Petro & Stage, Barbara M. B. & Todtenhaupt, Maximilian, 2024. "Business model digitalization, competition, and tax savings," Discussion Papers 2024/6, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    7. Anderton, Robert & Botelho, Vasco & Reimers, Paul, 2023. "Digitalisation and productivity: gamechanger or sideshow?," Working Paper Series 2794, European Central Bank.
    8. Priit Vahter & Maaja Vadi, 2022. "The Relationship Of Technological And Organizational Innovation With Firm Performance: Opening The Black Box Of Dynamic Complementarities," University of Tartu - Faculty of Economics and Business Administration Working Paper Series 138, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, University of Tartu (Estonia).
    9. Murciano-Goroff, Raviv & Zhuo, Ran & Greenstein, Shane, 2021. "Hidden software and veiled value creation: Illustrations from server software usage," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    10. Ichiro Muto & Fumitaka Nakamura & Makoto Nirei, 2024. "Digitalization, Entrepreneurship, and Wealth Inequality," IMES Discussion Paper Series 24-E-01, Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies, Bank of Japan.
    11. Diane Coyle, 2021. "The idea of productivity," Working Papers 003, The Productivity Institute.
    12. Flavio Calvino & Luca Fontanelli, 2023. "Artificial intelligence, complementary assets and productivity: evidence from French firms," LEM Papers Series 2023/35, Laboratory of Economics and Management (LEM), Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy.
    13. Cristiano Antonelli & Gianluca Orsatti & Guido Pialli, 2023. "The knowledge-intensive direction of technological change," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(1), pages 1-27, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • D25 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Intertemporal Firm Choice: Investment, Capacity, and Financing
    • M21 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Economics - - - Business Economics
    • O32 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Management of Technological Innovation and R&D
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

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