The influence of appropriability conditions on the firm's entry timing orientation

In high technology industries the firm's market entry timing may have critical influence on the firm's long-term survival and performance. In addition to the conditions of the firms' operating environments also the appropriability regime has an impact on the firms' eagerness to move early to the market. In this paper we study the influence of two individual appropriability mechanisms; intellectual property rights (IPRs) and tacitness on firm's entry timing orientation. From the viewpoint of the firm, the stronger appropriability regime should encourage earlier entry as the possibilities for first-mover advantage are greater. The results of our study suggest that the firms' orientation to move early is indifferent to tacitness, whereas there is a strong positive correlation between the strength of the IPRs and the firm's orientation to act early. However, running the regression separately for the seven industries reveals that the influence of the two appropriability mechanisms is somewhat industry-specific. Furthermore, in highly dynamic environments the high degree of knowledge tacitness seems to be associated with slower entry.