Innovative Conduct in Computing and Internet Markets

How has innovative and competitive behavior in computing and Internet markets evolved over the past half-century? In the first section of this review, I discuss these questions in light of six topics: the limited role for technology push; the diffusion of general-purpose technologies; the organization of proprietary platforms; the presence of asymmetric innovation incentives; the importance of market-oriented learning; and the localization of economic activity. Despite dramatic changes in outcomes, in the predominant product markets, and in the identities of leading sellers, the conditions of market structure shape innovative conduct in firms from one year to the next and, to a large extent, from one decade to the next, in many of the same economic terms.