Syllabus

Mid-term paper

Final paper

Some additional readings related to the class are here; they might be useful for final papers.

Here are some of the final papers from previous instances of the course:

• Fast Times at 2.4 GHz: The Open Standards War Between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Josh Wills
• International Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Rights, Peter Magic
• Rise and Fall (and Rise) of CRM, Subramanyam Malella

Readings - Preliminary Schedule

• Structure and Evolution of Technology and Systems -- Macro

  • Class 1 (Jan 19) - no readings
    • Please email me (fussell@cs.utexas.edu) a copy of this outline with your preferences indicated for each lowest level bullet. Use numerical preferences, smallest being most preferred (e.g. you'd rather cover something with preference level 1 than with preference level 2)
  • Class 2 (Jan 24) - Disruptive technologies
    • Christensen, Clayton M., Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave
      Question: How important are disruptive technology issues in the build-or-buy decisions of established companies considering acquisitions of startups?
    • Christensen, Clayton M., Chapter 3 "Disruptive Technological Change in the Mechanical Excavator Industry" from The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Companies to Fail
      Question: How is the PC-to-PDA transition similar to and/or different from the stream-to-hydraulic excavator transition?
  • Class 3 (Jan 26) - Network effects
    • David, Paul A., Clio and the Economics of QWERTY
      Question: Compare QWERTY's effects as a standard to a particular standard in the computer industry? Does it have similar benefits and drawbacks, or is it different because it is primarily an "end user" standard?
    • Shapiro, Carl and Varian, Hal R., The Art of Standards Wars
      Question: Discuss the 64bit CPU standards war, Itanium vs. AMD-64 vs the IBM Power architecture using this paper's classification scheme.
  • Class 4 (Jan 31 ) - Schumpeterian Competition: Monopolies and competition in complimentary markets
    (renamed from: Competition in Operating Systems)
    • Samuelson, Robert J. "The Gates of Power", The New Republic, April 23, 2001, pp. 28-33.
      Question (pick 'A' or 'B'): (A) Two years later, are we starting to see answers to some the questions that Samuelson asks? In particular, what has happened now that some parts of Microsoft's business are past the rapid growth phase? (B) Are operating systems a natural monopoly? Is this the main reason for Microsoft's success?
    • Bresnahan, Timothy F., The Microsoft Case; Competition, Innovation, and Monopoly
      Question: Discuss the pros and cons of various remedies proposed for Microsoft's monopolistic practices in terms of their likely effects on the industry. Make a recommendation.
    • OPTIONAL: Vinod V. with comments by Eric S. Raymond, "Halloween I whitepaper", 1998.
  • Class 5 (Feb 2) - Open source as a competitive force
    
    • Fear of Forking Essay, Rick Moen, Nov. 1999 with later corrections and annotations.
      Question: Suppose that Linux and a rich open source software suite (including dosemu) were fully developed a couple of years after the introduction of the i386 in 1985. What impact, if any, would that have had on the development of PC technology?
    • Open-Source vs. Proprietary Software, Jean-Michel Dalle
      Question: Suppose your goal is to derive a proprietary advantage from a product based on open source technology. How would you go about doing so?
    • OPTIONAL: The Simple Economics of Open Source, Josh Lerner and Jean Tirole.
  • Class 6 (Feb 7) - Geographic clustering of companies
    • Porter, Michael A., Clusters and the New Economics of Competition Question: Many fundamental cluster effects seem to be rooted in interpersonal relationships and a common employment pool in a local area. These also drive up the costs of doing business in a cluster area and promote exporting clusters. How do you see the advent of the Internet, telecommuting, cellphones, and other changes in communication and workplace structure affecting the relative strengths of positive and negative cluster effects? Will clusters be more, less, or equally important in the future as a result?
    • What's missing in Austin? R & D, Gary Chapman, Austin American-Statesman, Jan 11, 2001.
    • How Silicon Valley Won, Boston Globe, March 13, 1994. Summarizes book "Regional Advantage: Culture and Competition in Silicon Valley and Route 128", by AnnaLee Saxenian. Question: Porter's explanation of cluster effects in the paper above was pretty generic, and as such doesn't really distinguish very well between characteristics of clusters in the same business such as those of Silicon Valley and Route 128. How would you modify or extend Porter's explanation to account for the arguments in this article?"
    • Excerpt from "The Silicon Valley edge: a habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship, Lee et al. [This reading is CANCELLED, because we don't have it.]
  • Class 7 (Feb 9) - Development of Technology Markets
    • Crossing the Chasm -- and Beyond, Chapter 2 from "Inside the Tornado", by Geoffrey A. Moore.
      Question: What stage of the technology adoption cycle is videoconferencing technology currently in? What would be the best strategy for a company selling videoconferencing equipment to use to drive the technology and marketplace to the next stage of the cycle?
    • How Market Leaders Keep Their Edge, Treacy, Michael and Wiersema, Fred, Fortune, Feb 6, 1995.
      Question: Is Treacy's analysis appropriate for technology companies? Why or why not?
  • Class 8 (Feb 14) - Technology's Impact on Productivity Growth
    • Wal-Mart case study, excerpt from HBS case study [includes description of how technology is used].
    • Computer Use and Productivity Growth in Federal Government, 1987 to 1992, Lehr, William and Lichtenberg, Frank, NBER Working Paper 5616
    • US Productivity Growth, 1995-2000, Executive Summary, McKinsey Global Institute Report, October 2001.
      Question: What are the three most important business-process changes that Wal-Mart made to be able to realize produtvity benefits from technology? [Or, as usual, you can write one page of anything that clearly demonstrates you read the assigned readings and have thought about them]

• Patents and Intellectual Property

  • Class 9 (Feb 16) - Introduction to Patents and Intellectual Property
    • Patent Basics for Physicists, Richardson and Wood, Physics Today, April 1997
    • Excerpt (pp. 1/8 to 1/24) from Patent it Yourself, Pressman, August 1996. [This excerpt describes the distinctions between patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets].
      
    • Restoring the lost art of patent strategy, chapter 2 from Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents, Rivette and Kline, 2000.
      Question: Analyze a recent patent case using the framework presented by Rivette and Kline. For example: Is it wise for SCO to try to make money by suing IBM?
  • Class 10 (Feb 21) - ...
  • Class 11 (Feb 23) - ...
    • Mips vs. Lexra: Definitely not Aligned, Halfhill and Belgard, Microprocessor Report, Dec. 1999.
      The outcome of this dispute is described here and here
    • Surviving the Internet Patent Wars Rembrandts in the Attic, Chapter 7
      Question 1: Is there (or will there be) an Internet Patent War?
      Question 2: Will patent strategy help or hinder the continued growth of Open Source software? What should the Open Source community do about patents?

  • Class 12 (Feb 28) - Guest Speaker: Bill Hulsey, Hulsey Intellectual Property Lawyers, P. C., Issues in IP Law

  • Midterm paper proposals due

• Structure and Evolution of Technology and Systems -- Micro

  • Class 13 (Mar 2) - Value Capture
    • When Does Start-up Innovation Spur the Gale of Creative Destruction?, Gans, Joshua, Hsu, David, and Stern, Scott, NBER Working Paper 7851
      Question 1 : Which is more critical to the rapid pace of innovation in the technology industry, the culture and infrastructure of start-up companies or the proper organization of established companies to meet the challenges of disruptive technology and new competition? Why?
    • Industrially Sponsored University Research in Information Technology: Some Recommendations Regarding Intellectual Property Agreements
      Question 2 : What is your view of the role of university research in the technological ecology in this country? Are universities properly structured to perform this role?

  • Class 14 (Mar 7) - Investment, V.C.s, Startup Infrastructure
    • Zider, Bob "How Venture Capital Works", Harvard Business Review, 11/01/1998:9
    • "An Engineer's View of Venture Capitalists", Nick Tredennick, IEEE SpectrumOnline, September 2001
    • The Twelve (Almost)* Sure-fire Secrets to Entrepreneurial Success, Frederick J. Beste III, whitepaper from www.vcinstitute.org.
    • Question: Is the venture capital system as it is practiced in this country good for the investing public and good at spurring innovation? Can you think of a better alternative for the investing public and/or entrepreneurs?

  • Class 15 (Mar 9) Guest Speaker: Stephen Strauss, former principal with Austin Ventures, on how VCs work

  • Class 16 (Mar 21) - Startups, Entrepreneurship I
    • Hamm, John "Why Entrepreneurs Don't Scale", Harvard Business Review, Dec 2002, vol. 80, no. 12, pp. 110-116
    • Additional readings:
      • Roberts, E.B. "Technological Entrepreneurship: Birth, Growth, and Success", Chapter 12, Entrepreneurs in High Technology: Lessons from MIT and Beyond, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 339-357.

  • Midterm papers due by midnight March 11

  • Class 17 (Mar 23) - Startups, Entrepreneurship II
    • Chapter 2 (pp. 10-33), "The People", from Gordon Bell and John McNamara, "High Tech Ventures: The Guide for Entrepreneurial Success"
    • pp. 126-139 ("Technology and Engineering Flaws") in Chapter 6, "The Technology Balance Sheet", from same book (Bell and McNamara).
    • "Engineers as Entrepreneurs", IEEE Spectrum, pp. 14-23, August 1998.

  • Class 18 (Mar 28) - Guest Speaker Eric Broockman, Alereon Corp.

  • Class 19 (Mar 30) - Startups, Entrepreneurship III
    • Chapter 3 (pp. 34-58), "The Business Plan: A Roadmap and a Scorecard for the Future", from Gordon Bell and John McNamara, "High Tech Ventures: The Guide for Entrepreneurial Success"
    • Chapter 4 (pp. 59-84), "Cash, Financeability, and Control", from same book (Bell and McNamara)
    • "Angels and Informal Risk Capital", William H. Wetzel, Sloan Management Review 24, no. 4 (Summer 1983), pp. 23-34.

  • Class 20 (Apr 4) - Value Capture and Innovation Strategy I
    How much of the value created by new technologies can be captured by the organizations that create them?
    How should companies manage their research to benefit their business?
    • Introduction (pp. xvii-xxxi) from "Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology", Henry Chesbrough, HBS Press, 2003.
    • "How Rapidly Does New Industrial Technology Leak Out?", Mansfield, Edwin, Journal of Industrial Economics, vol. 34, no. 2 (Dec. 1985), pp. 217-223.
      Question: Both of these readings argue that most innovations unavoidably diffuse outside the organization that developed them, but that this diffusion takes time. How should a company that wants to capture maximum value from its internally funded research take advantage of this delay? How can universities and other organizations that do not productize their own innovations take advantage of this delay to capture value from their own innovations?

  • Class 21 (Apr 6) - Value Capture and Innovation Strategy II
    • Chapter 1 ("Xerox PARC: The Achievements and Limits of Closed Innovation", pp. 1-19) from "Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology", Henry Chesbrough, HBS Press, 2003.
    • Schwartz, Evan Who Really Invented Television?, Technology Review, Sep/Oct 2000.
    • "Strategy and the Internet", Porter, Michael, Harvard Business Review, March 1, 2001.
      Question: For a particular company, the primary value-capture question is "how much value can my company capture"? But for society as a whole, the primary value-capture question may be "how much benefit (value capture!) does the typical member of society receive?" Can you propose a mechanism for balancing value capture by innovators and by customers that would (theoretically) maximize benefit to the median member of the public?

  • Class 22 (Apr 11) - Value Capture and Innovation Strategy III
    • Chapter 5 ("From Closed to Open Innovation: The Transformation of the IBM Corporation", pp. 93-112) from "Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology", Henry Chesbrough, HBS Press, 2003.
    • Chapter 6 ("Open Innovation @ Intel", pp. 113-133) from the same book (Open Innovation...).
      Question: How might Intel adapt or augment its research funding strategy to address the concerns raised in the last two pages of Chapter 6?

  • Class 23 (Apr 13) - Vertical integration and dis-integration
    Note: This is really a macro issue as much as a micro one, so we could have discussed it in an earlier part of the course.
    • Chapter 5 ("Getting the scope of the business right") from The Innovator's Solution: Creating and Sustaining Successful Growth, Christensen and Raynor, 2003.
    • Chapter 6 ("How to avoid commoditization") from the same book. Question:

• Technology Management Strategy

  NOTE: Final Paper Proposals Due: April 20

  • Class 24 (Apr 18) - Quantitative measures of performance
    • Who's on First, Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, The New Republic, Sept 1, 2003, pp. 27-31. (Review of "Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game")
    • Has pay for performance had its day?, J. Day et al, McKinsey Quarterly, 2002 Issue 4.
      Question: Research institutions (e.g. universities) have difficulty quantifying the productivity of their workers (e.g. faculty). How do they attempt to do so? What do today's readings say about the best approach for doing so? Do these same questions apply to research personnel in a company?

  • Class 26 (Apr 25) - "Peopleware"
    • "Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams", 2nd edition, DeMarco and Lister, pp. 3-29 and pp. 42-50.
    • The Guerilla Guide to Interviewing, Joel Spolsky, "Joel on Software" web page, Thursday, March 23, 2000.

  • Class 27 (Apr 27) Guest Speaker: Mark McDermott, Semiconductor Industry Entrepreneur and Adjunct Professor of ECE at UT on engineering management

• Technology and Society

  • Class 25 (Apr 20 Note: out of order) - Government Support of Research
    • "The Simple Economics of Basic Scientific Research", R. Nelson, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 67, no. 3 pp. 297-306.
    • "Academic Research and Industrial Innovation", Edwin Mansfield, Research Policy, vol. 20 (1991), pp. 1-12.
    • "High-tech R&D Subsidies: Estimating the Effects of Sematech", Douglas Irwin, Peter Klenow, Journal of International Economics, vol. 40 (1966), 323-344.
      
    • Question: How would you formulate a national research policy for the 21st century that optimizes the economic benefits per research dollar? Consider the strengths and weaknesses of the three research vehicles we've examined: industry labs, academia, and research consortia like Sematech. Which should be encouraged and funded to do what? Do we need them all? Do we need different models?

  • Class 28 (May 2) - Technology and regulation in cyberspace
    • Code is Law: On Liberty in Cyberspace, by Lawrence Lessig, in Harvard Magazine, January-February 2000
    • Chapter 4: Architectures of Control from Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books, 1999.
    • Chapter 6: Cyberspaces from Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace by Lawrence Lessig, Basic Books, 1999.
    • Question: What forces are most likely to shape the Internet for the next decade? Government? Private industry? The open-source movement? How will things change?

  • Class 29 (May 4) - Technological change as a subversive force
    • Winners and Losers: The Differential Effects of Technological Change, Chapter 2 (pp. 17-32) from Society and Technological Change, 4th edition, Rudi Volti, 2001.
      Question: Pick a modern technological change (e.g. the widespread adoption of email), and specify whom is economically harmed by the widespread adoption of the new technology.

• Final Papers Due: Friday May 13 at 11:59 pm