Ideas for rent: an overview of markets for technology

TLDR

The article surveys recent literature on technology markets to assess their supply, demand, and structural dynamics and to determine whether these markets will continue to expand or remain niche. The authors organize their review into three sections—supply and demand, conditioning factors for market formation and growth, and industry structure and dynamic issues—while also summarizing studies that document market size and growth. They find that research has largely concentrated on supply, leaving demand for external technology, uncertainty, and the interaction between industry structure and technology markets largely unexplored.

Abstract

This article surveys some of the recent literature on technology markets, and summarizes its main issues and insights. We structure our analysis in three parts: the supply and demand of technology; the factors that condition the formation and growth of technology markets; industry structure and dynamic issues. In addition, we summarize some of the studies that have tried to document the size and growth of these markets. We find that the literature has focused mainly on the supply of technology, but several other aspects of these markets remain under-studied, including the demand for external technology, the role of uncertainty in technology markets, and the dynamic interaction between industry structure and the market for technology. Understanding these will illuminate whether markets for technology will continue to grow or remained confined to pockets of the economy.