The conventional wisdom classifies technologies into dichotomous types, such as competence-enhancing versus competence-destroying or sustaining versus disruptive. This categorization corresponds to the two routes of technology evolution: either consolidating or destabilizing past achievements....

We estimate the effect of R&D spillovers on sales realized by products new to the firm (imitation) and new to the market (innovation). It turns out that spillovers from rivals lead to more imitation, while inputs from customers and research institutions enhance original innovation