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Entry strategies in an emerging technology: a pilot web-based study of graphene firms

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Abstract

We explore pilot web-based methods to probe the strategies followed by new small and medium-sized technology-based firms as they seek to commercialize emerging technologies. Tracking and understanding the behavior of such early commercial entrants is not straightforward because smaller firms with limited resources do not always widely engage in readily visible and accessible activities such as publishing and patenting. However, many new firms, even if small, present information about themselves that is available online. Focusing on the early commercialization of novel graphene technologies, we introduce a “web scraping” approach to systematically capture information contained in the online web pages of a sample of small and medium-sized high technology graphene firms in the US, UK, and China. We analyze this information and devise measures that gauge how firm specialization in the target technology impacts overall market orientation. Three groups of graphene enterprises are identified which vary by their focus on product development, materials development, and integration into existing product portfolios. Country-level factors are important in understanding these early diverging commercial approaches in the nascent graphene market. We consider management and policy implications of our findings, and discuss the value, including strengths and weaknesses, of web scraping as an additional information source on enterprise strategies in emerging technologies.

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Acknowledgments

Support for this research was provided through the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (National Science Foundation Award 0531194). Additional support was provided by the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, the Georgia Tech Program in Science, Technology and Innovation Policy, and the Manchester-Atlanta-Beijing Innovation Co-Lab (with support from the British Council UK-US New Partnership Fund—Prime Minister’s Initiative for International Education). The findings in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation, the authors’ institutions, or the other sponsors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Public Policy, Georgia Institute of Technology, Alanta, GA, 30332-0345, USA

    Sanjay K. Arora & Philip Shapira

  2. Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30332-0345, USA

    Jan Youtie

  3. Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK

    Philip Shapira

  4. Chengdu Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 16, Nan’erduan, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, 610041, People’s Republic of China

    Lidan Gao

  5. School of Economics and Management, Beijing Institute of Technology, No. 5, Zhongguancun Nandajie Haidian District, Beijing, 100081, People’s Republic of China

    TingTing Ma

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  1. Sanjay K. Arora
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  2. Jan Youtie
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  3. Philip Shapira
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  4. Lidan Gao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip Shapira.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 4 and 5.

Table 4 Descriptive statistics for application keywords
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Table 5 Descriptive statistics for sector keywords
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Arora, S.K., Youtie, J., Shapira, P. et al. Entry strategies in an emerging technology: a pilot web-based study of graphene firms. Scientometrics 95, 1189–1207 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-0950-7

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