Know-how and Asset Complementarity and Dynamic Capability Accumulation: The Case of R&D Constance E. Helfat

Research Question When firms seek to alter their stock of knowledge in response to change in the external environment, do such efforts depend on the firms’ existing stocks of complementary know- how and other assets, and if so, how?

Context Industry: Oil company Time Period: 1976—1981 Two major oil price increases Increase expenditures on alternative fuels technologies

Oil company R&D and businesses Two sort of endeavors 1.Conventional, established technologies 2.Technologies that are under development

The primary established businesses of the FRS firms and the nature of the main technologies used in each business for the period Coal conversion technology

Hypotheses 1a: Firms that had larger stocks of knowledge from past refining R&D were likely to have undertaken larger amounts of coal gasification/liquefaction R&D. 1b: Firms that had larger accumulated refinery assets were likely to have undertaken larger amounts of coal gasification/liquefaction R&D. 1c: Firms that had larger stocks of knowledge from past R&D on other synthetic fuels were likely to have undertaken larger amounts of coal gasification/liquefaction R&D. 2: Firms that had larger accumulated coal assets were likely to have undertaken larger amounts of coal gasification/liquefaction R&D.

Additional resources and knowledge 1: Financial resources 2: Coal conversion R&D by other firms 3: The amount of past coal conversion R&D Organizational learning Adjustment costs

Preliminary Evidence

10 DV IVs Complementary know-how Complementary physical assets Other knowledge & resources Control

Correlation Table

Empirical Results 12 Support for H1a No support for H1b & H1c Support for H2 No support for interaction term

Conclusion Investigated the role of complementary technological knowledge and physical assets in dynamic capability accumulation. As firms raised spending on coal conversion R&D in response to rising oil price, they may have sought to benefit from complementary oil refining R&D-based knowledge and to exploit complementary coal assets. Smaller firms? The ways in which firms identify and promote opportunities for knowledge and asset sharing across different activities within the firm.