Technology combination and new product introduction

Abstract

This paper examines the technology combination effect on the firm’s new product introduction in the US automobile industry. Car makers attempt to introduce the alternative models following the socio-technological change in the industry while consistently producing the mainstream gasoline model. Based on the previous literature we predicted technology combination will distinguish two different new model introduction which is first mainstream product and second the alternative model. We divided the technology combination into the reuse and creation to explain the mechanism of the differential technology combination effect. To test this hypothesis, we draw the technology combination networks for each auto manufacturers and conducted the empirical analyses using zero inflated negative binomial regression model. We used the vehicle registration data provided by the US government agency and transform the patent data to capture the technology combination. Our findings show that reuse, creation have differential effect on gasoline models and electric models. Exogenous shock strengthens the relationship of technology combination and new model introduction. Additionally, we figure out the effect on model performance and network structure variable effect.