Research Output
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Publication
The civilising tension at the heart of market-making: a case study of the stent industry
2012-06, Lawlor, Jim, Kavanagh, Donncha
We are interested in the emergence of new markets. While the literature contains various perspectives on how such new markets come to be, the dynamics of the marketization process are less clear. This paper focuses on the development of stent technology and examines the activities characteristic of its emerging market. We identify four market 'moments': a mutable marketing moment prior to the point of disruption; two parallel moments at the point of disruption – internecine marketing between emergent competitors, and subversive marketing between those competitors and established actors; and finally, a civilized marketing moment. We conclude that emergent competitors operate two distinct strategies at the point of disruption. Also, legal activities are central to marketization dynamics during this period. In terms of process, while creative destruction may broadly describe the move from disruption to acceptance, there is a period of creative construction prior to disruption, when the new market is coming into being.
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Publication
Infighting and fitting in: Following innovation in the stent actor-network
2015-01, Lawlor, Jim, Kavanagh, Donncha
This paper examines the technological and market innovation processes associated with emerging markets. Through a longitudinal study of the stent actor–network, four contests that punctuated the stent market's emergence are identified. Corporeal battles occurred as stents were fitted into the human body, and as the market emerged and stabilised through a process of creative construction. Subsequently, corporate wars developed between emergent corporate actors, and, in parallel, an incorporation campaign occurred in which emergent corporate actors sought to fit in to the established actor–network. Finally, civilized confrontation, or the ‘normal’ activities expected in a stabilised market, emerged. We conclude that, prior to Schumpeter's creative destruction impacting on the established market, there is a period of creative construction. We introduce the term ‘mutable marketing’ to describe the dominant market innovation processes evident during this period. This research shows that emergent actors are likely to be destroyed through mutually antagonistic infighting.
Publication
The relationship between new technologies and strategic activities
2009, Lawlor, Jim, Kavanagh, Donncha
While 'new technology' and 'strategy' are pervasive and foundational to this journal's inquiry, each term is filled with ambiguity. This paper seeks to extend our understanding by developing a model relating technology to strategy. The model is a two-by-two frame based on the distinction between 'planned' vs 'emergent' strategy and 'latent' vs 'sensible' technology. The frame generates four distinct domains that we label 'development', 'capitalisation', 'creation' and 'cultivation'. The paper then considers the 'creation' quadrant through a case history of the stent industry. This case indicates that (a) new technologies lack the 'revolutionary' characteristic with which they are normally associated; (b) that the courthouse rather than the marketplace is an important if not primary domain where new technology firms compete; and (c) that new technology firms are much more aggressive when interacting with other new technology firms than they are with firms from the existing industry.