How do the determinants of firm survival change in the course of the industry life cycle? A fuzzy-set analysis

Industry life-cycle research on firm survival concentrates on the effects of entry timing, pre-entry experience, and innovativeness. However, findings on how these effects change over different stages of the life cycle are scarce. To fill this gap, we perform a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on a dataset of 58 video game device producers in six product generations. We find that both deepening and widening innovation provide a consistent survival advantage only in the mature stage of the life cycle. We also find that experience accumulated within the industry loses its value in the mature stage, and pre-entry experience becomes valuable only after shakeout. These findings are discussed relating to technological uncertainty, the role of internal and external knowledge, and the construction of sufficient technological performance.