Bottleneck Resources, Market Relatedness, and the Dynamics of Organizational Growth
58 Pages Posted: 25 Nov 2014 Last revised: 13 Jan 2020
Date Written: December 30, 2019
Abstract
Entering a new product market requires assembling a bundle of technological and market resources. Because missing a single resource may foil the entire entry effort, we argue that bottleneck resources – those most difficult to obtain or sell externally – anchor the direction of firm growth. We characterize market resources as bottlenecks because they are (on average) more challenging to obtain and sell than technological resources, and articulate why the importance of market resources varies with the strength of external markets for technology. Using cross-industry data linking firms’ product information with their patent portfolio, we find resource dynamics whereby market resources drive the strategic decision to enter, and firms use both external and internal development to fill technological gaps in their portfolio.
Keywords: product market entry, diversification, resource-based view, demand-side strategy, markets for technology
JEL Classification: L10, M21, O30
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation