First movers

Although the technical feasibility of a 2000 Watt per capita society in the second half of this century has been clarified and its economic feasibility is likely to be achievable at present energy price levels, its practical realisation remains an open question. The external cost of fossil-fuel use and many obstacles at sectoral and technology levels still hinder a fast implementation, as do a limited perception of the motivation and opportunities of possible first movers and supporting actors and a limited understanding of the innovation system. 

Many compounds in the top decile of the returns distribution involve the first mover, or other early entrants, in a new therapeutic class. The family of medicines in a given... 

Patents are considered critically important to research-oriented pharmaceutical firms in obtaining positive returns from innovations. This has been demonstrated in several economic studies. In cross-industry analyses, Levin et al. (1987) and Cohen, Nelson, and Walsh (2002) found that the pharmaceutical industry placed the highest importance on patents. By contrast, many other research-intensive industries, such as computers and semiconductors, placed greater stress on factors like lead time and efficiencies in the production of new products accruing to first movers. 

Assessment and re-examination of the business model is especially important as the segment matures. As a chemical moves from discovery to growth, to maturity, and on to decline, its customer needs, competitive dynamics, and market characteristics change. These inflection points require a refinement (or in some cases total change) of the business model (Fig. 5.11). The key success factor here is the ability to anticipate changing market dynamics in order to be a first mover in developing a new and more successful model. 

Most chemical companies that are not yet active in biotechnology should delay no longer, as the first movers have aheady started to reduce competitors options, and non-movers are unlikely to get a second chance. Some key developments in major areas and some approaches to strategy selection for the traditional chemical companies are outlined below. 

Harmonisation was also difficult due to the relatively long period of time devoted to the assessment of allocation plans. Opinions vary whether it was better to be one of the first movers or to submit allocation plans at a later stage according to the Czech allocation plan, it was difficult to change or adjust the methodology on the basis of the successful implementation of a particular element in someone else s allocation plan - it seemed that Member States went mostly their own way. 

The first enterprises whose managers learn to develop, produce, and sell in national and often worldwide markets—that is, to commercialize new scientific and technical learning— become the initial builders of the high-tech industries. I term such enterprises first movers. They are not necessarily the first to produce and sell the new product. Instead, they are the first to de-... 

First movers, of course, cannot create an industry by themselves. They must develop close relationships with supporting enterprises—suppliers both of capital equipment and materials to be processed, research specialists, distributors, advertisers, and providers of financial, technical, and other services. Thus, the needs of the core firms lead to the emergence of a supporting nexus of interconnected and complementary—rather than competitive—enterprises. The nexus may contain small, medium, and even large firms in supporting lines of a wide variety of products and services. And it soon develops into a source for the creation of a wide variety of specialized firms. But only rarely do core companies emerge from the nexus. 

The building of the barriers to entry, in turn, creates an arena or playing field in which the first movers and close followers define their strategic... 

My basic purpose in this volume is, as it was in Inventing the Electronic Century, to undertake the fundamental task of the historian to record when, where, and by whom scientific and technical knowledge were commercialized into new products that created a wide variety of manmade materials central to the shaping of a modern industrial economy and manmade pharmaceuticals that sustained modern medicine. I do this by focusing on the relative successes and failures of the first movers and their close followers in the national industries of Europe and the United States. (That of Japan competed successfully in chemicals or pharmaceuticals only in Asia.) I review these histories from their beginnings through the end of the twentieth century. 

Second, high-technology industries form over a period of decades in which they establish their infrastructures. The first movers and their close... 

Of the multisectored core companies listed in Table 1.1, all except Allied Chemical were American first movers in products based on new chemical technologies. Du Pont, Dow, Monsanto, and American Cyanamid established their initial learning bases between 1896 and 1907. Du Pont was the first mover in nitrocellulose-based explosives, Dow in electrically produced inorganic chemicals, and Monsanto in the synthesis of foods and flavors. The several companies that in 1917 made up Union Carbide had also pioneered in a range of electrically based inorganic products. On the other hand, only one of the enterprises that merged into Allied commercialized a new technology. 

The timing of the petroleum companies entry into the chemical industry determined their long-term position in the industry. The four that commercialized petrochemicals before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor— Standard Oil of New Jersey (Exxon by 1993), Shell, Standard Oil of California (Chevron by 1993), and Phillips—were the first movers. By the 1950s they had become the leaders in the basic feedstocks and commodity polymers such as polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, and polypropylene. Those companies that entered after 1941 achieved success by focusing on specific niche products in the manner of the smaller U.S. companies. As shown in Table 1.1, these include Arco (Atlantic Refining Company), Amoco (Standard Oil of Indiana), Ashland, and BP America (acquirer of Standard Oil of Ohio). 

The companies whose remarkable evolutions are reviewed in Part Three (Chapters 7-10) are recorded in Table 1.2. The most important lesson to be gleaned from the table is the very different beginnings of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States and Europe. In Europe, the first movers were German and Swiss core chemical companies, which commercialized drugs... 

Thus, even before the war, Du Pont had created first-mover advantages based on new technology and commercializing products from it. Du Pont, however, did not participate in the massive wartime projects to develop high-octane aviation fuel and synthetic rubber—projects that spawned com-... 

An entrepreneurial startup like Dow, Monsanto became the American first mover in a new synthetic organic chemical path—namely, flavors and foods. It bore more of a resemblance to Du Pont immediately after World War I and during the 1920s in that its growth depended more on acquisitions than on... 

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