Innovation, competition and financialization in the communications technology industry: 1996-2016

The objective of this paper is to document the relative position of different firms in the communications technology industry to take advantage of new opportunities and the potential influence of financialization on their innovative strategy and performance. To do so, we compare the performance of the leading sixteen firms in the industry over the past twenty years and provide summaries of the impacts of stock buybacks—as the most evident manifestations of financialization— on major firms in the global industry over the past two decades. This survey then positions us to focus the key competitors in the communications technology industry today. More in-depth case-study research on the tension between innovation and financialization is proposed as an ongoing research agenda.

working_paper_2017_08_cover

Innovation, competition and financialization in the communications technology industry: 1996-2016

Marie Carpenter
Télécom Ecole de Management

William Lazonick
University of Massachusetts Lowell

Working Paper
08/2017 May