DP3293 Time Based Competition and Innovation

Author(s):	David Thesmar, Mathias Thoenig
Publication Date:	April 2002
Keyword(s):	competition, firm organisation, innovation, reactivity
JEL(s):	L16, L23, O32
Programme Areas:	Industrial Organization
Link to this Page:	cepr.org/active/publications/discussion_papers/dp.php?dpno=3293

By choosing their organizations, firms trade-off productive efficiency and time spent in implementing innovation. We embed such a productivity/reactivity trade-off in a growth model with creative destruction. We first highlight the specific impact of time in firm competition: in addition to weighing costs and benefits of late adoption, firms use time as a strategic variable through the possibility of overtaking their competitors. Due to this very specificity of time competition, multiple equilibria may emerge: when firms adopt quickly, their stock market valuation is larger, and they innovate more and produce less. Moreover, the IT revolution is shown to favour quick implementation via a general equilibrium feedback on organizational choice.