IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/red/issued/09-182.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Disagreements, employee spinoffs and the choice of technology

Author

Listed:
  • Peter Thompson

    (Florida International University)

  • Jing Chen

    (Copenhaguen Business School)

Abstract

Most existing models of employee spinoffs assume they are driven by a desire to implement new ideas. However, history is replete with examples of spinoffs that were launched to continue with old ideas that their parents were in the process of abandoning. We develop a model of technology choice in which spinoffs may form to implement new or old technologies. A team of managers engaged in production using technology x, is considering switching to technology y. The value of y is not known and disagreements may emerge among team members. Managers who develop sufficiently strong disagreements with their colleagues choose to form new companies to implement their preferred strategy. Two distinct classes of spinoffs arise. In the first, a spinoff forms when an employee comes to believe it is worth adopting y but the firm does not. In the second, a spinoff arises when an employee sufficiently disagrees with the firmmodifier letter apostrophes decision to adopt y that he is willing to invest in order to continue with x. We explore the implications of the model for the comparative dynamics of spinoff formation, and the performance of firms. (Copyright: Elsevier)

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Thompson & Jing Chen, 2011. "Disagreements, employee spinoffs and the choice of technology," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 14(3), pages 455-474, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:red:issued:09-182
    DOI: 10.1016/j.red.2010.09.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.red.2010.09.003
    Download Restriction: Access to full texts is restricted to ScienceDirect subscribers and institutional members. See http://www.sciencedirect.com/ for details.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.red.2010.09.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Guido Buenstorf & Steven Klepper, 2009. "Heritage and Agglomeration: The Akron Tyre Cluster Revisited," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 119(537), pages 705-733, April.
    2. Satyajit Chatterjee & Esteban Rossi‐Hansberg, 2012. "Spinoffs And The Market For Ideas," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 53(1), pages 53-93, February.
    3. Golosov, Mikhail & Skreta, Vasiliki & Tsyvinski, Aleh & Wilson, Andrea, 2014. "Dynamic strategic information transmission," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 304-341.
    4. Anderson, Lisa R & Holt, Charles A, 1997. "Information Cascades in the Laboratory," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 87(5), pages 847-862, December.
    5. Qi Chen & Wei Jiang, 2006. "Analysts' Weighting of Private and Public Information," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 19(1), pages 319-355.
    6. Ottaviani, Marco & Sorensen, Peter Norman, 2006. "Professional advice," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 126(1), pages 120-142, January.
    7. S. Klepper & S. Sleeper, 2002. "Entry by Spinoffs," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2002-07, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    8. Darren Filson & April Franco, 2000. "Knowledge diffusion through employee mobility," Staff Report 272, Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.
    9. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1979. "Job Matching and the Theory of Turnover," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 87(5), pages 972-990, October.
    10. Eric Van den Steen, 2004. "Rational Overoptimism (and Other Biases)," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 94(4), pages 1141-1151, September.
    11. Luis Cabral & Zhu Wang, 2008. "Spin-offs: theory and evidence from the early U.S. automobile industry," Research Working Paper RWP 08-15, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    12. Peter Thompson, 2008. "Desperate Housewives? Communication Difficulties and the Dynamics of Marital (un)Happiness," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(532), pages 1640-1669, October.
    13. Christensen, Clayton M., 1993. "The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of Commercial and Technological Turbulence," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 67(4), pages 531-588, January.
    14. Kenneth Arrow, 1962. "Economic Welfare and the Allocation of Resources for Invention," NBER Chapters, in: The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors, pages 609-626, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Jovanovic, Boyan, 1982. "Selection and the Evolution of Industry," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(3), pages 649-670, May.
    16. Matt Marx & Deborah Strumsky & Lee Fleming, 2009. "Mobility, Skills, and the Michigan Non-Compete Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(6), pages 875-889, June.
    17. Klepper, Steven & Thompson, Peter, 2010. "Disagreements and intra-industry spinoffs," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 526-538, September.
    18. Steven Klepper & Sally Sleeper, 2005. "Entry by Spinoffs," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(8), pages 1291-1306, August.
    19. Guido Buenstorf, 2009. "Opportunity spin-offs and necessity spin-offs," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Venturing, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 1(1), pages 22-40.
    20. Steven Klepper, 2007. "Disagreements, Spinoffs, and the Evolution of Detroit as the Capital of the U.S. Automobile Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(4), pages 616-631, April.
    21. Cozzi Guido, 2007. "The Arrow Effect under Competitive R&D," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 7(1), pages 1-20, January.
    22. Crawford, Vincent P & Sobel, Joel, 1982. "Strategic Information Transmission," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1431-1451, November.
    23. J. Michael Harrison & David M. Kreps, 1978. "Speculative Investor Behavior in a Stock Market with Heterogeneous Expectations," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 92(2), pages 323-336.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Walter, Sascha & Heinrichs, Simon & Walter, Achim, 2013. "Hostile Parent Firms and Child Firm Performance," EconStor Preprints 68592, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    2. Bahoo-Torodi, Aliasghar & Torrisi, Salvatore, 2022. "When do spinouts benefit from market overlap with parent firms?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(6).
    3. Egle Vaznyte & Petra Andries & Sarah Demeulemeester, 2021. "“Don’t leave me this way!” Drivers of parental hostility and employee spin-offs’ performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 265-293, June.
    4. Fontana, Roberto & Zirulia, Lorenzo, 2023. "How far from the tree does the (good) apple fall? Spinout creation and the survival of high-tech firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 26-49.
    5. SHIMIZU, Hiroshi & 清水, 洋 & WAKUTSU, Naohiko, 2017. "Spin-Outs and Patterns of Subsequent Innovation: Technological Development of Laser Diodes in the US and Japan," IIR Working Paper 17-14, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    6. Lindholm-Dahlstrand, Asa & Andersson, Martin & Carlsson, Bo, 2016. "Entrepreneurial Experimentation: A key function in Entrepreneurial Systems of Innovation," Papers in Innovation Studies 2016/20, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    7. Åsa Lindholm-Dahlstrand & Martin Andersson & Bo Carlsson, 2019. "Entrepreneurial experimentation: a key function in systems of innovation," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 53(3), pages 591-610, October.
    8. SHIMIZU Hiroshi & WAKUTSU Naohiko, 2024. "SBIR, Startups, and Subsequent Technological Development: Laser diodes in the United States and Japan," Discussion papers 24012, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    9. Andrea Morrison, 2018. "Spinoffs, parents, and institutions: Evidence from the Italian motorcycle industry," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1840, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Nov 2018.
    10. Maryann P. Feldman & Serden Ozcan & Toke Reichstein, 2021. "Variation in organizational practices: are startups really different?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 1-31, January.
    11. Krasteva, Silvana & Sharma, Priyanka & Wagman, Liad, 2015. "The 80/20 rule: Corporate support for innovation by employees," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 32-43.
    12. Urbig, Diemo & Reif, Karina & Lengsfeld, Stephan & Procher, Vivien D., 2021. "Promoting or preventing entrepreneurship? Employers’ perceptions of and reactions to employees’ entrepreneurial side jobs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    13. Monia Lougui & Anders Broström, 2021. "New firm formation in the wake of mergers and acquisitions: An exploration of push and pull factors," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 65-89, January.
    14. Natarajan Balasubramanian & Mariko Sakakibara, 2021. "Incidence and Performance of Spinouts and Incumbent New Ventures: Role of Selection and Redeployability within Parent Firms," Working Papers 21-27, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    15. Shimizu, Hiroshi & Wakutsu, Naohiko, 2014. "Entrepreneurial Spin-Outs and Vanishing Technological Trajectory: Laser Diodes in the U.S. and Japan," IIR Working Paper 13-21, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    16. Buenstorf, Guido & Engel, Christoph & Fischer, Sven & Gueth, Werner, 2016. "Non-compete clauses, employee effort and spin-off entrepreneurship: A laboratory experiment," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 2113-2124.
    17. Sascha G. Walter & Simon Heinrichs & Achim Walter, 2014. "Parent hostility and spin-out performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(13), pages 2031-2042, December.
    18. Maryann P. Feldman & Serden Ozcan & Toke Reichstein, 2019. "Falling Not Far from the Tree: Entrepreneurs and Organizational Heritage," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(2), pages 337-360, March.
    19. Yeganegi, Sepideh & Laplume, André O. & Dass, Parshotam & Huynh, Cam-Loi, 2016. "Where do spinouts come from? The role of technology relatedness and institutional context," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1103-1112.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Klepper, Steven & Thompson, Peter, 2010. "Disagreements and intra-industry spinoffs," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 526-538, September.
    2. Christian Cordes & Peter Richerson & Georg Schwesinger, 2014. "A corporation’s culture as an impetus for spinoffs and a driving force of industry evolution," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 689-712, July.
    3. Cristobal Cheyre & Steven Klepper & Francisco Veloso, 2015. "Spinoffs and the Mobility of U.S. Merchant Semiconductor Inventors," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(3), pages 487-506, March.
    4. Baltzopoulos, Apostolos & Braunerhjelm, Pontus & Tikoudis, Ioannis, 2012. "Spin-off: Individual, Firm, Industry and Regional Determinants," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 265, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    5. Johannes Dick & Katrin Hussinger & Boris Blumberg & John Hagedoorn, 2013. "Is success hereditary? Evidence on the performance of spawned ventures," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 40(4), pages 911-931, May.
    6. Muendler, Marc-Andreas & Rauch, James E. & Tocoian, Oana, 2012. "Employee spinoffs and other entrants: Stylized facts from Brazil," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 447-458.
    7. Luis Cabral & Zhu Wang & Daniel Yi Xu, 2018. "Competitor, Complementors, Parents and Places: Explaining Regional Agglomeration in the U.S. Auto Industry," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 30, pages 1-29, October.
    8. Aaron K. Chatterji & Rui J. P. de Figueiredo & Evan Rawley, 2016. "Learning on the Job? Employee Mobility in the Asset Management Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(10), pages 2804-2819, October.
    9. Helmut Fryges & Bettina Müller & Michaela Niefert, 2014. "Job machine, think tank, or both: what makes corporate spin-offs different?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(2), pages 369-391, August.
    10. Yang, Chia-Hsuan & Nugent, Rebecca & Fuchs, Erica R.H., 2016. "Gains from others’ losses: Technology trajectories and the global division of firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 724-745.
    11. Steven Klepper, 2010. "The Origin and Growth of Industry Clusters: The Making of Silicon Valley and Detroit," NBER Chapters, in: Cities and Entrepreneurship, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Fontana, Roberto & Zirulia, Lorenzo, 2023. "How far from the tree does the (good) apple fall? Spinout creation and the survival of high-tech firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 213(C), pages 26-49.
    13. Hervas-Oliver, Jose-Luis & Lleo, María & Cervello, Roberto, 2017. "The dynamics of cluster entrepreneurship: Knowledge legacy from parents or agglomeration effects? The case of the Castellon ceramic tile district," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 73-92.
    14. Manuel Portugal Ferreira & Nuno R. Reis & Roberta M. Paula & Claudia Frias Pinto, 2017. "Structural and longitudinal analysis of the knowledge base on spin-off research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 112(1), pages 289-313, July.
    15. Yeganegi, Sepideh & Laplume, André O. & Dass, Parshotam & Huynh, Cam-Loi, 2016. "Where do spinouts come from? The role of technology relatedness and institutional context," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1103-1112.
    16. Lougui, Monia & Broström, Anders, 2016. "New firm formation in the wake of mergers and acquisitions: Are employees pushed or pulled into entrepreneurship?," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 427, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    17. Ioannis Ioannou, 2014. "When Do Spinouts Enhance Parent Firm Performance? Evidence from the U.S. Automobile Industry, 1890–1986," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 529-551, April.
    18. Fackler, Daniel & Schnabel, Claus, 2013. "Survival of Spinoffs and Other Startups: First Evidence for the Private Sector in Germany, 1976-2008," IZA Discussion Papers 7542, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Gil Avnimelech & Maryann Feldman, 2010. "Regional Corporate Spawning and the Role of Homegrown Companies," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 27(4), pages 475-489, July.
    20. Rin, Marco Da & Hellmann, Thomas & Puri, Manju, 2013. "A Survey of Venture Capital Research," Handbook of the Economics of Finance, in: G.M. Constantinides & M. Harris & R. M. Stulz (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Finance, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 573-648, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spinoffs; Learning; Disagreement; Technology choice;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:red:issued:09-182. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christian Zimmermann (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/sedddea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.