Pengfei Wang

Ubisch, Sverre Søyland & Wang, Pengfei (2023)

Innovation on technological “islands”: domain contrast, boundary spanning, knowledge depth and breadth

Industrial and Corporate Change Doi: 10.1093/icc/dtad014

Prior literature has long examined innovation as a recombination process within or across the boundaries of technological domains. However, limited attention is paid to boundaries per se. Building upon recent development of categorical contrast, this study distinguishes domains with crisp boundaries from those with fuzzy boundaries and examines their effects on innovation outputs. Analyzing a large sample of US patents, we find that spanning crisp boundaries is more likely to generate impactful inventions but at the same time leads to significantly higher recombinant uncertainty. We continue to explore what types of inventors are better able to span such types of domain boundaries. Focusing specifically on the role of inventors’ knowledge expertise, we find that while both knowledge depth and breadth enhance the impact of technologies that span crisp boundaries, knowledge breadth is also found to escalate the associated uncertainty. Our emphasis on the contrast of technological domains contributes to the literature on recombinative innovation and boundary spanning.

Ubisch, Sverre Søyland & Wang, Pengfei (2022)

Typical Products for Outside Audiences: The Role of Typicality When Products Traverse Countries

Strategic Organization Doi: 10.1177/14761270221143984

While organization theorists have established the importance of typicality, most studies examine situations where producers and audiences dwell within the same category system (e.g., a country, industry, or market). However, much less attention is paid to the role of typicality when products are introduced from one system to another. Since defining what is typical is commonly system-specific, typical products in one category system may be perceived as being atypical in others. It is therefore important to understand how typicality shapes market exchanges when products traverse category systems. To shed light on this, we introduce two key concepts—home typicality and host typicality—and examine specifically how they affect the performance of products distributed across countries. By analyzing a large sample of films, we find that films are more successful in international markets, when they are more typical of their home countries and/or more atypical of their host countries.

Wang, Pengfei (2022)

Looking into the past: Audience heterogeneity and the inconsistency of market signals

Strategic Organization Doi: 10.1177/14761270221139760 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

Wang, Pengfei (2021)

Gain initial endorsement from the core: market entry, initial partners, and embeddedness in the venture capital market

Industrial and Corporate Change Doi: 10.1093/icc/dtab027 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

This study draws attention to the embedding process of market entrants, by examining the initial and subsequent partnerships of de alio entrants versus de novo entrants. Although de alio entrants have access to superior resources from their parents, they may encounter more resistance from the market as they project impure identity, introduce different logics, and pose greater competitive threats. Analyzing a sample of new entrants in the venture capital market, we find that while de alio entrants are less likely to establish initial partnerships with mainstream incumbents (i.e. receiving an overall initial resistance from the market), they are more likely than de novo entrants to establish ties with high-status incumbents (i.e. gaining more initial endorsement from the core). Results also show that initial network positions allow de alio entrants to sustain gaining prestigious endorsement in the later period, and at the same time to offset the overall resistance from mainstream incumbents. Our findings contribute to the literature on market entry and corporate demography.

Wang, Pengfei (2019)

Price space and product demography: Evidence from the workstation industry, 1980–1996

Research Policy, 48(9) Doi: 10.1016/j.respol.2019.05.007 - Fulltekst i vitenarkiv

This study adds to the product innovation literature by emphasizing the important yet understudied role of price distribution in shaping product demography (i.e. new product introductions and exits). While prior research has focused on market niches in the technological and geographic spaces in order to explain product demography, price space has received very limited attention despite the important role of price in the market. We posit that product dynamics are largely shaped by the existing price distribution. More specifically, we argue that local density in price space determines both the likelihood of existing products exiting the market and the rate of new products entering it. Analyzing product exit and entry in the U.S. workstation industry from 1980 to 1996, we find that while price density increases an existing product’s exit rate, new products are also more likely to enter the niches where the price density is high. We also draw attention to internal price density within multiproduct firms, analyzing a product’s price distance from the other products launched by the same firm. We find that this type of internal price density decreases both existing products’ exit rate and new products’ entry likelihood. Our emphasis on price space contributes to the literature on product innovation and demography.