Innovation, Competition And Financialization In The Communications Technology Industry: 1996-2016

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to document the relative position of different firms in the<br> communications technology industry to take advantage of new opportunities and the potential<br> influence of financialization on their innovative strategy and performance. To do so, we compare the<br> performance of the leading sixteen firms in the industry over the past twenty years and provide<br> summaries of the impacts of stock buybacks—as the most evident manifestations of financialization—<br> on major firms in the global industry over the past two decades. This survey then positions us to focus<br> the key competitors in the communications technology industry today. More in-depth case-study<br> research on the tension between innovation and financialization is proposed as an ongoing research<br> agenda.