How Much Are We Alike and How Much Are We Apart? The Case of Technology Advancement

Technology advancement is an important competitive action that enables a firm to escape competition or to combat competitive pressure from its competitors. By simultaneously considering resource similarity and disparity, this paper exams how inter-firm similarity in technological resources and market drives a firm to advance its technology, and how this effect will be moderated by inter-firm technological resource disparity, i.e., the extent of a firm’s technological leading position edge over its competitor? Data from the global flat panel display industry show that inter-firm similarity in technological resources discourages technology advancement but inter-firm similarity in market has the opposite effect. Furthermore, the varying extent of a firm’s leading technological position over its competitors weakens the effect of technological resource similarity while enhancing the effect of market similarity. We contribute to the resource-based view and competitive dynamics research by offering insights into this rich and complicated connection between resources and competition.