 “Breaking the mirror”: interface innovation and market capture by Japanese professional camera firms, 1955–1974Paul Windrum, Michelle Haynes and Peter Thompson () Industrial and Corporate Change, 2019, vol. 28, issue 5, 1029-1056 Abstract: Improving an interface to increase control over interactions between existing product modules can create new product features which alter the basis of competition in mature (sub)markets. We empirically examine the impact of interface innovation by new market entrants from Japan in the high-end, professional camera submarket between 1955 and 1974. Prior to 1960, the industry architecture of the professional camera submarket was modular, dominated by German specialist body and specialist lens manufacturers. This market structure changed due to the success of integrated Japanese startups who, from 1961, offered novel automated exposure features, facilitated by improving the existing interface between the camera body and lens, and by making this interface a proprietary standard. Their success broke the mirror between the industry architecture, which became vertically integrated, while the product architecture remained modular. JEL-codes: C32 L60 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:indcch:v:28:y:2019:i:5:p:1029-1056. Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Industrial and Corporate Change is currently edited by Josef Chytry More articles in Industrial and Corporate Change from Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. |
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