Research On The Manufacturer's Technology Opening Strateg

Science and technology,as the primary productive force,play an important role in promoting economic development and social progress.With technology becoming the key of competition between countries and enterprises,technology strategy has been paid more and more attention.From the perspective of nations,in order to occupy a dominant position in the future scientific and technological competition,governments of various countries have formulated their own medium and long-term technology development plans to guide the competition and development of manufacturing technology in the future,such as “ Chinese enterprise 2025 ”,“ Advanced Manufacturing Partnership 2.0 ” and German “ Industry 4.0 ” strategy.From the perspective of enterprises,traditionally,enterprises maintain their competitive advantage through strict technology close strategy or patent licensing strategy.However,with the development of technology practice in the commercial field,more and more technology-leading enterprises have begun to choose the technology open strategy actively.By actively disclosing technology secrets free of charge,they can increase market demand,encourage supplier to invest and reduce costs,and ultimately increase the profits of enterprises.For example,IBM has opened its computer architecture technology;Google has released the source code of android with the authorization of Apache open source license;Tesla and Toyota have opened their patent technologies related to new energy vehicles successively.However,such a technology open strategy is a double-edged sword,which can not only achieve the strategic goal,but also make the enterprise lose its technological advantage and face great risks.Therefore,based on the specific market and technical conditions,choosing the appropriate technology open strategy(close/open)has become the key to the success of many technology leading enterprises.Similarly,for the technology following enterprises,it is also an important issue for them to choose appropriate following strategies according to the changes of technology strategies of the technology following enterprises.Based on this background,this study takes the manufacturer’s technology opening strategy as the research object,on the basis of combing the existing literature and the new technology strategy practice in the current commercial technology field,from the perspective of strategy selection,we divide the decision-making environment of manufacturer’s technology opening into four scenarios according to the different environmental conditions(market structure and technology upgrading mode),and study the manufacturer’s technology opening strategy under the four scenarios,which provides guidance for the manufacturer’s technology opening decision and the follow-up decision of the corresponding followup enterprises.This research not only fills the theoretical gap of manufacturer technology opening strategy research,but also provides guidance for manufacturers to make correct technology decision in the increasingly complex environment of competition and cooperation.Therefore,this research has certain theoretical and practical significance.The core research contents and conclusions of this paper include the following four parts:First,technology open strategy in complete monopoly market without technology R&D.In this chapter,we study the technology opening strategy of manufacturers facing the threat of new manufacturer(potential market entrant).Based on the theory of product demand,we build a manufacturer technology strategy model including supplier,manufacturer,new manufacturer and consumers by introducing network effect and economies of scale effect.On the basis of giving the optimal output and optimal profit of the manufacturer under the technology close/open strategy,the manufacturer technical strategy and corresponding market results are obtained by comparison and analyzed.The influence of network effect intensity,economies of scale effect intensity and the influence coefficient of the number of manufacturers on the total potential market demand on the manufacturer technical strategy are also been analyzed.Furthermore,the model is extended to consider the changes of manufacturer technical strategy in the case of multiple new manufacturers and market entry cost.The results show that:(1)The necessary condition of technology open strategy is that new manufacturer can increase the total potential market demand.The greater the influence coefficient of the number of manufacturers on the total potential market demand,the more inclined the manufacturer is to adopt the technology open strategy.(2)Moderate network effect intensity and economies of scale effect intensity are conducive to manufacturer’s choice of technology open strategy,while both higher and lower effect intensity is not conducive to manufacturer’s choice of technology open strategy.(3)When the number of new manufacturers increases,the change direction of the manufacturer technical strategy is determined by its initial technical strategy.(4)The market entry cost will not affect the manufacturer’s technology open strategy,but will change the new manufacturer’s market entry strategy under the technology open strategy,thus leading to the differentiation of market results.Second,technology open strategy in complete monopoly market with technology R&D.In this chapter,we study the technology opening strategy of the manufacturers facing the threat of technology introduction and technology R&D from new manufacturer(potential market entrants).From the manufacturer’s technology opening decision,we construct a product supply chain model including manufacturer,new manufacturer and consumers,and then calculate the equilibrium profit of each market participant under the manufacturer’s closed/open strategy respectively.When the manufacturer chooses technology close,the new manufacturer can only enter the market through technology R&D,while when the manufacturer chooses technology open,the new manufacturer can enter the market through free technology introduction in addition to technology R&D.The two kinds of market entry have different effects on market demand and market structure.The impact of technology introduction on demand is small and will not cause market differentiation,while the impact of technology R&D on demand is large and will cause market differentiation.We get the Nash equilibrium of the technology strategy game between the manufacturer and the new manufacturer through the method of backward induction,and then we get the manufacturer’s technology open strategy,the new manufacturer’s market entry strategy and the corresponding market results.We also analyze the impact of influence difference of technology introduction and R&D on demand,basic market demand and R&D cost on manufacturer’s technology open strategy.On this basis,we also further analyze the differences in social welfare between technology introduction and technology R&D.The results show that:(1)The manufacturers’ profit is determined by the incremental difference of technical value between the manufacturer and its competitor.(2)The competitive difference of manufacturers’ core technology has an important impact on their technology open strategy: small competitive difference will promote the technology open of manufacturers;large competitive difference will lead to the differentiation of technology open strategies between the two competitors;moderate competitive difference will lead to strategic consideration of technology open of strategic pioneers.(3)The reduction of coupling cost after technology open does not always encourage manufacturers to open technology.(4)The increase of technology switching cost will increase the situation of both sides of the competition choosing technology open and technology close at the same time.Third,technology open strategy in oligopoly market without technology R&D.In this chapter,we study the technology open strategy of manufacturer under the threat of technology introduction from competitors.We build a sequential game model of duopoly market with two manufacturers(one strategy leader and one strategy follower)considering technology introduction.The strategy leader chooses the technology open or chose first,and the strategy follower chooses his own technology open strategy based on the strategy leader’s strategy,then the two manufacturers conduct technology selection decision and product design decision simultaneously on the basis of the technology open decision.The model includes the key factors that affect the decisionmaking of both sides of the game,including the competitive difference of core technologies,the reduction ratio of technology coupling cost after technology opening,and the technology switching cost.By comparing the optimal profit under the strategy leader technology open / close strategy,the manufacturer’s optimal technology strategy(including three aspects of decision-making: technology open,technology selection and product design)and the corresponding subgame perfect Nash equilibrium are obtained.We analyze the impact of core technology competitiveness of the manufacturer’s technology relative to its competitors,and the reduction ratio of technology coupling cost under the manufacturer technology open strategy.Furthermore,the model is extended to consider the impact of the technology leader technical disadvantage and the change of technology switching cost on the manufacturer technology open strategy.The results show that:(1)the decision-making of manufacturer technology open is mainly determined by the competitive difference of manufacturer core technologies.When there is little difference in the competitiveness of manufacturer core technologies,both technical advantage side and disadvantage side tend to choose the technology open strategy;when the competitive difference of manufacturer core technologies is large,the technology advantage side tends to choose the technology close strategy,while the technology disadvantage side tends to choose the technology open strategy;when the competitive difference of manufacturer core technologies is moderate,the strategy of technology open is often related to the game order.(2)the reduction of technology coupling cost under technology opening does not always have a positive impact on the manufacturers’ choice of technology open strategy.In some cases,after the strategy leader choosing the strategy of technology opening,the strategy follower will also choose the technology open strategy.In this case,the profit of the strategy leader will be worse than that of choosing the technology close strategy.Finally,the increase of technology switching cost will reduce the willingness of manufacturer who are technologically disadvantaged to convert technology.At this time,the situation that manufacturer choose technology open or technology close strategy and insist on adopting their own technology will increase.Fourth,technology open strategy in oligopoly market with technology R&D.In this chapter,we study the technology open strategy of manufacturer under the threat of competitor’s technology R&D.We build a sequential game model of duopoly market with two manufacturers(one strategy leader and one strategy follower)considering technology R&D.The strategy leader chooses the technology open strategy firstly,and then the strategy follower chooses the R&D strategy.The model includes the macro factors of the level of industrial technology development(including technology compatibility and marginal production cost)and the micro factors of enterprise differences(including technology relatedness and technology level difference).The R&D level,yield and profit of manufacturers in the equilibrium are calculated,and subgame perfect Nash equilibrium of the game is obtained by the method of backward induction,which will provide guidance for manufacturers’ decision-making of technology open.Furthermore,the model is extended to consider the influence of technology asymmetry and technology opening of competitor on the manufacturer technology open strategy.The results show that:(1)Whether the competitor have the same ability to implement the technology open strategy has an important impact on the manufacturer technology open decision.When the competitor does not have the ability of technology open,the manufacturer’s technology open will obtain asymmetric market result,and help the manufacturer obtain the cost advantage compared with the competitors.When competitors also have the ability to open technology,the manufacturer’s technology open strategy will often obtain symmetrical market result.At this time,both sides of the competition will achieve cost reduction through technology opening and research and development,so as to achieve mutual benefit and win-win situation.(2)The decision-making of manufacturer’s technology open is influenced by macro factors related to industrial technology development and micro factors related to enterprise differences.For the macro factors: the lower the technology compatibility,the more likely the manufacturer is to choose technology open strategy and save the cost of compatibility.The increase of marginal production cost often makes the result of manufacturer’s strategy game more complex.This is because the increase of marginal production cost makes the manufacturer need to consider the technology R&D behavior of competitor in the process of technology open decision.For the micro factors: the impact of technology relatedness on the technology open strategy of manufacturers is related to whether their competitors have the same ability to open technology: when competitor do not have the ability to open technology,the increase of technology relatedness will make manufacturer more inclined to choose technology close strategy;when competitor has the ability of technology open,the increase of technology relatedness will increase the possibility of manufacturers choosing technology open strategy;when technology relevance reaches a certain level,its influence on the manufacturer technology strategy will disappear.The increase of technology level difference will increase the situation that manufacturers close technology and manufacturers exclude competitors through technology opening.Based on the current practice of new technology strategy in the field of commercial technology,this study considers the problem of strategy selection faced by manufacturers in the process of technology open,and deeply studies the decisionmaking process,optimal strategy and corresponding influencing factors of manufacturers in different scenarios.The possible innovations are as follows:First,this paper constructs a more systematic and perfect theoretical research framework,and studies the issue of technology open completely..On the one hand,the existing research on technology open strategy focuses on the technology sharing within the technology alliance based on the binding contract,and less on the situation that technology is open to the public unconditionally and free of charge.On the other hand,the research on free and open technology is often based on a single scenario,lacking a more systematic and perfect theoretical framework to integrate different research.From the perspective of strategy selection,this study divides the decision-making environment of technology open into four scenarios according to the different environmental conditions(market structure and technology upgrading mode)of enterprises,and deeply studies the manufacturer’s technology open strategy and the corresponding influencing factors under each scenario,which not only expands and improves the theoretical framework of technology open strategy research,but also gives a new direction for the follow-up research of technology open.Second,this paper studies the technology open strategy from the perspective of the network effect of products and the economies of scale effect of suppliers.The existing research focuses on the influence of supplier investment and other aspects.According to the supplier’s investment,the supplier’s supply of components and parts is divided into investment-supply and no investment-no supply,without considering the influence of market demand changes on the price of components and parts due to the economies of scale effect.At the same time,the existing research does not consider the impact of the network effect of products on manufacturer technology open strategy.Therefore,in Chapter 2,we consider the influence of the network effect on market demand and the situation that demand changes affect the price of components and parts through the economies of scale effect,and then study the influence of the network effect and the economies of scale effect on manufacturer technology open strategy.Third,this paper studies the impact of new manufacturer’s market entry on manufacturer technology open strategy from the perspective of technology introduction and technology research and development.On the one hand,the existing studies seldom consider the impact of new manufacturer’s technology R&D when manufacturer make technology open decisions.On the other hand,they do not consider the difference of the impact of technology introduction and technology R&D on market demand and market structure.Therefore,in Chapter 3,we set the influence parameters of the two market entry modes of new manufacturers on the demand,and consider the Cournot yield competition under technology introduction and the market differentiation based on consumer product technology preference under technology R&D,and then study the influence of the difference of demand influence of the two modes on the manufacturer technology open strategy.Fourth,this paper studies the strategy of technology open from the perspective of the relationship between technologies.Most of the existing studies consider technology open strategy from market factors,such as supplier investment,demand change,etc.,while there is little research on the impact of technology on technology open strategy from the perspective of the relationship between technologies.Therefore,in Chapter 4,we consider the cost difference caused by the competitive difference of the manufacturers’ core technologies;In Chapter 5,we consider the impact of technology relatedness on the manufacturer secondary R&D cost based on competitor technology open.On this basis,this paper analyzes the competitive differences of core technologies and the impact of technology relatedness on technology open strategy,and then fills part of the theoretical gap of technology open strategy research from the perspective of the relationship between technologies.