Real option games with R&D and learning spillovers

We demonstrate to decision makers how to optimally make costly strategic pre-investment R&D decisions in the presence of spillover effects in an option pricing framework with analytic tractability. Decisions are modeled as impulse-type controls with random outcome. Two firms face two decisions that are solved interdependently in a two-stage game. The first-stage decision is: What is the optimal level of coordination (optimal policy/technology choice)? The second-stage decision is: What is the optimal effort for a given level of the spillover effects and the cost of information acquisition? The framework is extended to a two-period closed-loop stochastic game with (path-dependency inducing) switching costs that make strategy revisions harder. When conditions of learning-by-doing exist, we find that strategy shifts are easier to observe in market environments of high growth and high volatility.

► We combine real option games with controls that capture R&D spillovers. ► We provide optimal coordination (or technology choice) and amount of effort. ► Game is extended to two-periods to capture learning-by-doing in decisions.