Dynamics of Innovation Strategies in the Optical Memories Industry: An Analysis Based on Patent Indicators

Technological innovation is characterized by a searching activity of optimal alternatives which is fundamentally dominated by an intense activity addressed to identify and solve technical problems. As components recombination is a very efficient source of innovation that firms widely resort to, the capability to recombine pieces of knowledge available in the organization or transferable from the outside becomes an important lever in the technological innovation strategy of the firm. Here a conceptualization which considers technological innovation as an outcome of a change of either the technological components or a diverse combination of the components themselves is adopted. Data relative to granted patents were considered. The assumption is that every patent is the outcome of the combination of a number of technological components associated to the sub-classes of the classification standard adopted. These sub-classes can be indirectly utilized to observe the search and the dynamics of technological innovation strategies. The sample includes 438 patents granted between 1975 and 2004 to 15 leading firms in the optical memory devices industry. The Fleming familiarity and Herfindahl concentration indexes are calculated to analyse innovation strategies.