Technological Competition and the Structure of the Computer Industry

Timothy F. Bresnahan, Stanford University, Department of Economics, and Shane Greenstein, Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 1999)

Technological opportunity has been the sole determinant of how the computer industry is organized. It did not determine what kinds of computers served which kinds of uses, supplied by what kind of firms, organized into what kind of industry. This is the role of market-mediated technical change. In making the argument, we have looked at many important developments in the industry, at many classes of computers and many different segments. This final section summarizes the change and continuity in the industry over four decades