research
INSTITUTIONS MEET S-CURVE (WORKING PAPER)
This study uses web scraping and other archival analyses to collect fine-grained product feature data that can reveal the possible impact of government standards on product features around weight, height, fuel mileage, and other relevant performance dimensions. Besides having granular product specifications, governments across the world have diverged as to what regulatory standard they will use in this space. In particular, we will examine differences between the U.S. and China around weight requirements for pilot licensing and drone registration and how that differentially affects observed product features for firms located in each of these countries. Therefore, we do not just have an industry with detailed product feature data but also one where governments have incorporated different product standard requirements. As such, this research will try to improve our understanding of the effects of government regulations directly on product features of firms in nascent markets.
Supported by NSF Science of Science - Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (Award Number: 2035625)
INSTITUTIONS MEET ECOSYSTEM (WORKING PAPER)
Yu, D. and Armanios, DE. “Institutions Meet Ecosystem: China’s Market and Institutional Infrastructure in the Commercial Drone Industry ,” Strategic Management Journal, revise and resubmit.
We study the infrastructure that can help explain the emergence of experimental markets (e.g., markets with both unclear institutional and technological trajectories). China’s rise as the commercial drone industry leader is an indicative example of such a market. We find that market-input infrastructure that clarifies know-how needed for inputs has a greater association with upstream founding (component firms). Market-output infrastructure that clarifies market fit for resulting products has a greater association with downstream founding (end product firms). These effects are substitutive; local governments focus only on one of these forms of market infrastructure to reduce the risks involved in such experimentation and to reduce competition with other cities. Finally, the institutional infrastructure that clarifies the rules increase founding, especially in cities with more market infrastructure.
VARIETIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT EXPERIMENTATION
Armanios, DE; Lanahan, L.; and Yu, D. 2020. “Varieties of Local Government Experimentation: U.S. State-led Technology-Based Economic Development Policies, 2000 – 2015,” Academy of Management Discoveries, 6(2), 266- 299, https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2018.0014.
In this paper, we characterize how U.S. state governments experiment with technology-based economic development (TBED) policies. We rely on the State Science and Technology Institute as the primary data source. Among the set of 1,659 state-led actions, we classify the context, topic, and lever. Second, we offer a descriptive and comparative analysis of this local government experimentation. In considering the spread of each state’s policy portfolio, we highlight four distinct experimental archetypes – hub specialists, public entrepreneurs, industry architects, and ecosystem designers.
Dataset available to researchers to build on this work and to policymakers seeking to benchmark their state's TBED efforts to those of other states. Please visit the CMU State Government Data webpage.
