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³ We do realize that companies in general, and specifically in the international computer industry, see mergers and acquisitions as an important alternative mode for obtaining R&D competencies. However, in our study, we focus on the sharing of R&D resources and R&D inputs through cooperation among independent companies. In addition, major trends and patterns in mergers and acquisitions constitute a different subject that will draw attention from the main purpose of our study: the analysis of trends and patterns in interfirm R&D networks.

⁴ See John, Richard, “Rendezvous with Information? Computers and Communication Networks in the United States,” Business History Review 75 (2001): 1–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁷ Hagedoorn, “Inter-firm R&D Partnerships”; Park, Sueng Ho, Chen, Roger, and Gallagher, Scott, “Firm Resources as Moderators of the Relationship between Market Growth and Strategic Alliances in Semiconductor Start-ups,” Academy of Management Journal 45 (2002): 527Google Scholar; Powell, Walter, White, Douglas, Koput, Kenneth, and Owen-Smith, Jason, “Network Dynamics and Field Evolution: The Growth of Interorganizational Collaboration in the Life Sciences,” American Journal of Sociology 110 (2005): 1132–1205CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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¹⁰ Hagedoorn, “Inter-firm R&D Partnerships”; OECD, “Technology and the Economy”; World Investment Report, Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions and Development (New York, 2000Google Scholar); Yasuda, “Formation of Strategic Alliances in High-technology Industries.”

¹¹ Hagedoorn, “Understanding the Rationale of Strategic Technology Partnering” and “Inter-firm R&D Partnerships”; Hladik, International Joint Ventures; Nielsen, “An Empirical Investigation of the Drivers of International Strategic Alliance Formation”; Obleros and Mac-Donald, “Strategic Alliances.”

¹² Duysters, Geert and Hagedoorn, John, “Technological Convergence in the IT Industry: The Role of Strategic Technology Alliances and Technological Competencies,” International Journal of the Economics of Business 5 (1998): 335–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁰ Malerba et al., “‘History-friendly’ Models of Industry Evolution.”

²¹ Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics”; Raphael, “The Changing Structure of the Global Information Industry”; Leban et al., Europe and Japan Facing High Technologies.

²² Dedrick, Jason and Kraemer, Kenneth, “The Impacts of IT on a Firm and Industry Structure: The Personal Computer Industry,” California Management Review 47 (2005): 122–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mazzucato, Mariana, “The PC Industry: New Economy or Early Life-cycle?” Review of Economic Dynamics 5 (2002): 318–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

²³ However, as one referee pointed out, there are also firms (i.e., Sony, Compaq, Toshiba, and Fujitsu-Siemens) that increased their number of R&D partnerships during this period in order to obtain premium prices by differentiating their top-brand PCs from commodity PCs. See Mazzucato, “The PC Industry.”

²⁴ Hagedoorn, John and Duysters, Geert, “External Appropriation of Innovative Capabilities: The Choice between Strategic Partnering and Mergers and Acquisitions,” Journal of Management Studies 39 (2002): 167–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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²⁸ See also Hagedoorn, John, “Trends and Patterns in Strategic Technology Partnering since the Early Seventies,” Review of Industrial Organization 11 (1996): 601–16CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and “Inter-firm R&D Partnerships”; Hagedoorn, John and Narula, Rajneesh, “Choosing Organizational Modes of Strategic Technology Partnering: International and Sectoral Differences,” Journal of International Business Studies 27 (1996): 265–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Narula, Rajneesh and Hagedoorn, John, “Innovating through Strategic Alliances: Moving towards International Partnerships and Contractual Agreements,” Technovation 19 (1999): 283–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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³⁰ Bresnahan, Timothy, “The Changing Structure of Innovation in the Computer Industry, America's Industrial Resurgence: An Overview,” in U.S. Industry in 2000: Studies in Competitive Performance, ed. Mowery, David (Washington, D.C., 1998Google Scholar); Bresnahan, Timothy and Greenstein, Shane, “Technological Competition and the Structure of the Computer Industry,” Journal of Industrial Economics 47 (1999): 1–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics”; Malerba et al., “‘History-friendly’ Models of Industry Evolution.”

³¹ This part of our analysis is based on quantitative network analysis and network visualization graphs. The material is available, on request, from John Hagedoorn.

³² Duysters, Geert, The Dynamics of Technical Innovation (Cheltenham, 1996Google Scholar); Bresnahan and Greenstein, “Technological Competition and the Structure of the Computer Industry.”

³³ Methé, Toyama, and Miyabe, “Product Development Strategy and Organizational Learning.”

³⁴ Duysters, “The Dynamics of Technical Innovation.”

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⁴¹ Duysters, “The Dynamics of Technical Innovation.”

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⁴⁷ Methé, Toyama, and Miyabe, “Product Development Strategy and Organizational Learning.”

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⁵⁹ Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics.”

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⁶⁷ “Making Deals–Without Giving Away the Store,” Business Week, 17 June 1991, 97.

⁶⁸ Kraemer, Kenneth L. and Dedrick, Jason, “The Role of Information Technology in Transformation of the Personal Computer Industry,” Paper prepared for Transforming Enterprise: The First International Conference on the Social and Economic Implications of Information Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce, Main Auditorium, Jan. 27–28, 2003, Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations (Irvine, Calif., 2003Google Scholar).

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⁷¹ Dedrick and Kraemer, “The Impacts of IT on a Firm and Industry Structure.”

⁷² Grove, Andrew S., Only the Paranoid Survive (New York, 1996Google Scholar).

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⁷⁴ Mazzucato, “The PC Industry.”

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⁷⁸ Bresnahan, “The Changing Structure of Innovation in the Computer Industry.”

⁷⁹ Grove, Only the Paranoid Survive.

⁸⁰ Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics.”

⁸¹ Unlike other companies in our company listing, Sequent Computer Systems is a smaller firm with fewer than 1,500 employees worldwide. By exploiting its unique parallel computer system (the coupling of several conventional microprocessors, i.e., Intel 80386, within a single mainframe design), the company assumed a leading position within the computer network during this period. Trew, Arthur and Wilson, Greg, Past, Present, Parallel: A Survey of Available Parallel Computer Systems (Berlin, 1991CrossRefGoogle Scholar).

⁸² As suggested by one of the referees, another reason that Apple made so many R&D partnerships during this period was probably because it was in a state of chaos and was desperately seeking new products.

⁸³ Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics and the Evolution of Firms.”

⁸⁴ Chandler, , “The United States: Engines of Economic Growth in the Capital-intensive and Knowledge-intensive Industries,” in Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, eds. Chandler, Alfred D. Jr., Amatori, Franco, and Hikino, Takashi (Cambridge, Mass., 1997), 63–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Inventing the Electronic Century.

⁸⁵ Bresnahan and Malerba, “Industrial Dynamics.”

⁸⁶ Hagedoorn, “Understanding the Rationale of Strategic Technology Partnering.”