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經理人外部連結對新興產業內公司之表現影響
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Hypothesis 2: The positive moderating effect of a TMT’s external ties on the
relationship between the TMT’s intra-industry experience and the
firm’s intra-industry performance decreases as the industry ages.
5. Methodology
5.1 Empirical Setting and Sample
To test the proposed hypotheses, the current study used panel data on firm performance
and TMT backgrounds from 1983 to 1998 in the U.S. cell-phone service industry. Mobile
communications services began in the United States in 1983 when the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission issued its first license for a mobile communications service
and Ameritech Mobile Communications launched the first commercial cell-phone service in
Chicago. The first technology innovation in the industry was the shift from analog to digital
transmission. In Los Angeles on January 14, 1991, PacTel Cellular placed the first
commercial digital cell-phone call using the new industry standard, according to a report by
PR Newswire. Following the improvement in technology, the U.S. cell-phone industry had
reached 10 million subscribers by the end of 1992, 10 times the number of subscribers in
1987, according to a 1987 CTIA report. At the end of 1998, the number of subscribers in the
U.S. was 69,209,321.
This industry setting is appropriate for this study for the following reasons. First, the
industry environment has evolved rapidly in technology, supply, and demand (Wickham,
1993). Second, the rapid entry and exit of firms in the industry was accelerated by a high
number of mergers and acquisitions and changes in government regulations over the study
period. Firms that entered the industry include both independent and corporate entrepreneurs,
and were diverse in product and geographic scope. Finally, in addition to significant industry
evolution, firms in the industry exhibit evolved capabilities by constantly adapting their
technology, entering new geographic markets, and changing their organizational capabilities
through hiring, internal restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, and alliances. Thus, testing the
proposed hypotheses within the mobile communications service industry enables observing
the sources of the initial capabilities of entrants and their adaptation as the focal industry
evolves in technology, demand, and competition.
This paper examines only those firms that appear to have long-term ambitions in the
business. At the early stage of the industry, numerous firms or individuals entered the
industry through forming partnership solely to realize short-term gains from arbitrage.
Hence, firms were classified as entrants to the industry if they exhibited a sufficient degree