Strategizing industry structure: the case of open systems in a low‐tech industry
研究在非高技术产业中，开放系统策略如何影响行业结构。基于美国桌面角色扮演游戏行业的调查，发现开放系统导致新企业进入，且新企业比现有企业更易采用该系统，同时企业平均规模因垂直专业化而缩小。
Abstract Open systems strategy enables a sponsor to diffuse its technology and promotes standardization in an industry. However, this strategy has been studied in high‐tech settings. We hypothesize that, in a non‐high‐tech industry, a sponsor giving access to its technical knowledge may impact industry structure. Based on a survey of the U.S. tabletop role‐playing game (RPG) industry, our results highlight that the introduction of an open system in a sector creates an entry induction phenomenon and that these new entrants adopt more readily the open system than incumbents. Moreover, the average size of the firms in the industry decreases due to vertical specialization. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.