Serial innovators in the markets for technology

Serial innovators are long-lived, small firms with a substantial, public record of innovative success. This paper argues that such firms are often specialist suppliers of technology. We draw on Arora, Fosfuri and Gambardella's framework concerning markets for technology to explain the patenting characteristics of these firms. We find that the firms produce technology that in comparison to large firm technology is higher quality, more broadly based, and more closely linked to scientific research. It may also be concentrated in newer generations of technology. The firms are younger than large firms as well. We hypothesize that serial innovators, survivors among the specialist technology suppliers, may have mastered innovating in technology with these characteristics because such technology is likely to be general purpose and so more broadly tradable. They thus become serious players in these markets – at least for a few years until a new generation of technology emerges. Introduction Small firms have long engaged the interest of students of innovation. The innovative efforts of small firms embody a tension between serious barriers and distinct advantages relative to large firms. 1 Establishing empirically the balance between these forces involved investigating whether small firms innovated more or less efficiently than large firms. 2 From the policy viewpoint, new technology-based firms have been studied for their promise of growth and attendant multitudes of new jobs. Such studies have assumed that small firms were mini-large firms: Were mini-large firms more or less efficient innovators than large firms? Which mini-large firms would grow large? As innovation is reshaped, a fresh perspective on small firms has emerged.