The Competitive Dynamics of Technology-Intensive Sectors

We test whether global technology-intensive sectors have become hypercompetitive over the 1980-2018 period. This is what numerous scholars have suggested, yet few have tested. Based on data from the United States, Europe, Japan, and China, we find no indication of a generalized increase in business performance volatility across regions. We instead find regional differences, such as a declining stability in the performance of Japanese firms over the study period, and in US firms leading up to the burst of the dotcom bubble. A structural break analysis helps us identify that hypercompetition is a “local” phenomenon in both location, time, and industry. We conclude that there is a lack of evidence supporting assumptions of widespread hypercompetition in technology-intensive sectors.