Decoupling market incumbency from organizational prehistory: Locating the real sources of competitive advantage in R&D for radical innovation
区分市场在位（在技术变革前已存在于市场）与组织前史（在转型前已有组织经验），指出两者常被混淆，并用抗癌和艾滋病药物市场数据说明这一区分如何解释为何既有企业也能在激进创新中表现优异。
Abstract The creative destruction literature has argued that differences in R&D performance of incumbent vs. entrant firms can be explained through organizational change theories about established vs. de novo firms. A disconnect exists between these theories and the available empirical evidence because often the best performing firms are established firms as well. I propose to resolve this disconnect by distinguishing between market incumbency (presence in a market prior to a discontinuity) and organizational prehistory (organizational experience prior to a transition, whether between technologies or between markets). Doing so allows me to contrast incumbent vs. entrant and de alio vs. de novo studies, and to suggest more robust future research designs. I illustrate my proposition using qualitative data from the anticancer and AIDS‐treatment drug markets. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.