Firm Matching in the Market for Technology: Business Stealing and Business Creation

Abstract

We propose an empirical framework for studying the prevalence of business creation and business stealing in technology transfers from the effect of technological overlap and product market overlap. We estimate the model on a new dataset that tracks interactions in the market for technology between publicly held US companies. Product market overlap has a negative effect on matching patterns that is suggestive of business stealing while technological proximity has a positive effect that is consistent with business creation. We assess the relevance of IP rights in deterring undesirable technology adoptions and discuss the suitability of alternative strategies of technology exchange.