Sailing ship effect
The Sailing Ship Effect is a phenomenon in business by which the introduction of a new technology to a market accelerates the innovation of an incumbent technology. [1] The effect is the economic version of a phenomenon in biology called the red queen effect. [2] The term was coined by W.H. Ward in 1967[3] in reference to advances made in sailing ships in the 1860s and 1870s in response to the introduction of steamships. [4] The Sailing Ship Effect occurs when an old technology is revitalized, experiencing a "last gasp" when faced with the risk of being replaced by a newer technology.
Discussion
Recently, the validity of the original example of the Sailing Ship Effect has been called into doubt. [5] In a recently published paper entitled "The Response of Old Technology Incumbents to Technological Competition: Does the Sailing Ship Effect Exist?" author John Howells contends that sailing ships and steamships serviced different market segments in the second half of the 1800s and, therefore, were not directly competing technologies.[6] Howells goes on to hypothesize that rapid advancements in sailing technology of that era may have arisen from competition between sailing ship firms.
Three possible explanations have been suggested as the cause of the Sailing Ship Effect:
- Old technologies improve in an attempt to avoid being replaced
- Components of new technology "spill over," improving incumbent technologies.
- New technologies generate new notoriety for old technologies
See also
References
- ^ Howells, John (2002). "The Response of Old Technology Incumbents to Technological Competition: Does the Sailing Ship Effect Exist?". Journal of Management Studies. 39 (7): 887–906. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00316. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
{{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter|coauthors=ignored (|author=suggested) (help); Unknown parameter|month=ignored (help) - ^ Schiavone, Francesco (2013). Communities of Practice and Vintage Innovation: A Strategic Reaction to Technological Change. Springer. p. 8. ISBN 9783319019024.
- ^ Ward, W.H. (1967). ""The sailing ship effect"". Bulletin of the Institute of Physics and Physical Society (18): 169.
- ^ Geels, Frank W. (2005). Technological Transitions and System Innovations: A Co-evolutionary and Socio-technical Analysis. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 9781845424596.
- ^ Geels, Frank W. (2005). Technological Transitions and System Innovations: A Co-evolutionary and Socio-technical Analysis. Edward Elgar Publishing. p. 50. ISBN 9781845424596.
- ^ Howells, John (2002). "The Response of Old Technology Incumbents to Technological Competition: Does the Sailing Ship Effect Exist?". Journal of Management Studies. 39 (7): 887–906. doi:10.1111/1467-6486.00316. Retrieved 6 October 2013.
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