R&D Competition and Innovation in the VCR Industry

This paper examines a significant example of accumulation of technology in post war Japan - the development process of the videocasstte recorder (VCR) for home use, and the dynamic evolution process of the mass market. The purpose of analyzing the Japanese home VCR industry is to clarify how and why only the Japanese makers had succeeded in developing home VCR and dominated. the global mass market and to make clear the dynamic process of industrial evolution. This study found out the following facts; 1) Japanese inter-firm interactions in the VCR have been carried out by the structure of "the competition and cooperation among the engaged players" form the initial stage, to growing, and maturing stage. 2) The process of competition and cooperation produced the revolutionary innovation through a continuous systematic development process in the R&D phase. 3) The process of competition and cooperation accelerated the speed of technological progress and the rapid growth of the industry in the growing and maturing stage.