Economy-wide increasing returns to scale embodied in a general purpose technology (GPT) and its applications are often a key source of long-run growth. Yet the successful exploitation of increasing returns calls for coordination on a particular technological direction, reducing flexibility and...

New mobile development platforms have created an enormous opportunity for applications innovation by lowering the costs of R&D and attracting the largest body of potential app demanders ever assembled. This has created an explosion of app suppliers, numerous and diverse. In this early stage of...

Although experimentation is critical to the innovation process in startups, little research has explored the link between different experimentation strategies and entrepreneurial innovation. We use unique data on experimentation strategies and innovation outcomes of firms producing iPhone...

The mobile applications (apps) industry has exhibited rapid entry and growth in the midst of a recession. Using unique data from the iPhone application ecosystem, we examine how the development of “killer apps” (apps appearing in the top grossing rank) varies by market and app...

Contractual theories of vertical integration derive firm boundaries as an efficient response to market transaction costs. These theories predict a relationship between underlying features of transactions and observed integration decisions. There has been some progress in testing these...